Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne

Possibly Catharina Sloot, widow of Mr. Hieronymus Ranst, The Hague, 1710;
Possibly the painting described as sold, The Hague, G. van de Polder, 2 October 1769, lot 41;
Sale, "Paintings, Objets d'art and Curiosities from the Collection of Monsieur the Cavalier F. Meazza of Milan," Milan, Jules Sambon, 15-19 April 1884, lot 89 (this lot sold on 17 April);
Cereda Collection, Milan;
Noseda Collection, Milan;
Possibly the painting described as sold, "Collection of Heinrich Gustav Winkle, Hamburg," Cologne, Heberle, 1-3 October 1888, lot 92;
Likely the painting described as sold, "Collection of Prince Paul Troubetzkoy," Paris, Hôtel Druout, 3 May 1892, lot 43;
Possibly Baroness (Hannah) Mathilde von Rothschild, Schloss Grüneberg, Frankfurt-am-Main;
Baroness Lili Schey von Koromla, Frankfurt-am-Main, by 1925;
With I. Rosenberg NV, Amsterdam, by 1939 (stock no. 1932);
With J. Goudstikker NV, Amsterdam, on commission from Rosenberg, until before December 1940 (inv. no. CB 603);
Dutch Private Collection;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 13 May 2003, lot 20 (and illustrated on the cover);
With Johnny van Haeften, London, 2003.

Frankfurt-am-Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus Privatbesitz, Summer 1925, no. 257.

O. Götz, G. Swarzenski, A. Wolters, Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus Privatbesitz. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis, Frankfurt 1926, p. 78, no. 226, reproduced plate LXXX;
M.M. Hale in Johnny van Haeften, Dutch and Flemish Old Master Paintings, London 2003, no. 38, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This panel is cradled. The surface is stable and flat and has been recently restored. There are very thin and accurately places retouches along the slightly swollen panel grain in the upper right and a in few spots in the rug in the lower right quadrant. Elsewhere retouches are not clearly visible either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. Interestingly enough one can see original pencil lines above the head indicating the artist's technique. The painting should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present lot is an exceptionally fine example of Adriaen van de Venne's mastery of the brunaille technique.  Painted entirely in varying shades of ochre with white highlights, the artist has magnificently captured the different textures of the wood, fabric, glass and metal objects in the room as they reflect the light entering from the left.  Although little is known about Adriaen van de Venne's early life, it is believed that he trained with two little known artists:  painter and goldsmith Simon de Valck and Hieronymus van Diest, who, at least according to Cornelis de Bie, was a grisaille painter.  Van de Venne went on to have a very successful career, not only as a painter, but also as an illustrator and engraver, and it would seem that his fondness for grisaille and brunaille (the words are often used interchangably, with the term grisaille frequently denoting all such monochrome works, whether gray or brown) developed from his graphic work for books by such well known figures as the poets Jacob Cats and Constantijn Huygens. 

When this painting appeared in the Meazza sale in Milan in 1884, it was listed along with a pendant, The Travelling Musicians, also en brunaille and similar in size.  In spite of this, it would seem unlikely, given the difference in subject matter, that these two works were conceived as a pair.  Edwin Buijsen, who is currently preparing the monograph on van de Venne, has suggested that a work in the Six Collection in Amsterdam until 1928 and depicting A Lady at Her Toilet is more likely to be the pendant to the present lot (fig. 1).  Not only are the two similar in size, they are also both signed and dated 1631 and seem to have been conceived as mirror images to one another:  in the Six picture, an elegant young woman is in the midst of combing her hair.  An old woman on the left holds up a mirror to the lady, just as the young servant does on the right in the Cavalier, and just as the curtain, pedestal and empty wine glass serve as a repoussoir on the left in the present painting, a similar motif frames the scene of the Lady on the right.  Similar still life objects are strewn across the floors and backgrounds of both images:  the stoves, chamber pots, sashes, jewelry and other items not only display van de Venne's virtuosity with his medium, but also carry emblematic meanings relating to vanity and excess. 

An infrared reflectogram captured by Edwin Buijsen of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague in 2003 reveals extensive and remarkably free underdrawing in the present work (fig. 2).  The face, hair and hands of the cavalier are all sketched in with quick, overlapping, fluid strokes that suggest rather than define the outlines of the figure.  Some of these lines even show through the thin paint glazes, for example in the hair that is visible above the man's head and in the folds and contours of his stocking-covered left leg as it comes down to the floor.  The underdrawing is a remarkable example of the artist's draftsmanship and shows evidence of his working technique.  Martin Wurfbain has suggested that this work might represent a self-portrait of the artist based on the similarity of the cavalier's face to van Bremden's engraving after van de Venne's Self-Portrait of 1634, and the figure's face seems close -- if a bit older -- to the artist's small Self-Portrait on copper of circa 1615, currently in a private collection (see L.J. Bol, Adriaen Pietersz. Van De Venne:  Painter and Draftsman, Doornspijk 1989, p. 63, fig.  50).¹ 

Another version of A Cavalier at His Toilet is conserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes (inv. no. 46.1.346).  Of lesser quality than the present picture, it likely formed a pair with another version of A Lady at Her Toilet, illegibly signed and dated, in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (inv. no. 3110).  Two such pairs, both described as "grauwtjes" (grisailles) are recorded in sales in The Hague in the 1760s:  the first, 23 September 1765, lot 72; the second, 2 October 1769, lots 40 and 41.  Although it is difficult to say with certainty, it is thought that the present painting is the work listed as lot 41 in the 1769 sale (see Provenance). 

We are grateful to Dr. Michael Hall and to the Rothschild Archive for their assistance in the cataloguing of the present lot.

This painting is being sold in cooperation with the successors of I. Rosenberg NV.


1.  Private correspondance to the present owner, 2005.