Karel Dujardin

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 28 November 1951, lot 35, to Welker;
With V. Bloch, The Hague/Paris, 1954;
Sidney van den Berg, Wassenaar;
His sale, London, Christie's, 30 March 1979, lot 115;
Anonymous sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 9 November 1989, lot 644.

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Oude Meesters, August 1965.

J.M. Kilian, The paintings of Karel Du Jardin 1626-1678, Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam 2005, p. 228, cat. no. B5, reproduced p. 406, plate 133.

The actual painting is softer than the catalogue illustration suggests. The single panel is sound and cradled, but it is not obvious why this has been done. No damages are visible to the naked eye and the paint surface is sound, if a little thin in the sky. A few small retouchings are visible around the horse's legs, and in the sky. Additional scattered retouchings, e.g. in the lower foreground, in the animals, and in the clouds fluoresce under UV light. The paint surface is under a clear layer of varnish. Offered in a plain ebonised wood frame in good condition. (MW)
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In her extensive monograph on the artist, Jennifer M. Kilian suggests a date for the present work to around 1655.¹ In the 1650s and early '60s, Karel Dujardin painted a large number of works devoted to cattle and strongly dependant on Paulus Potter (1625-1654). This painting of a serene animal scene is stylistically related to a number of works, such as to a Horse and Two Cows in a Hilly Landscape, on view in the Picture Gallery of Prince Willem V, The Hague (Instituut Collectie Nederland, Rijswijk/Amsterdam, inv. no. NK 2933).²

1. See Kilian under Literature, p. 228.
2. op. cit., p. 183, cat. no. 80, reproduced p. 362, plate 64.