JAN COSSIERS | A soldier smoking a pipe

Private collection, Switzerland;
Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 25 November 2015, lot 1034 (as Attributed to Jan Cossiers).

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 work is restored and should be hung in its current state. The original panel has been thinned and is now remounted on a board which has been reinforced with a wooden framework. The original cracks in the panel, running vertically in the upper and center right are now stable. The painting is clean and retouched. Some weakness had developed that has now been retouched. Retouches have been applied in the shadows of the hands, in the hair and in the shoulder of the figure, as well as in the old cracks in the panel in the background above the head, in the upper left, and in the lower right corner. The restorations are effective and there is no reason to reexamine them at this time.
"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."

Jan Cossiers executed a number of works depicting men, shown half-length, smoking, drinking or eating, set against a rapidly-painted neutral background. These subjects, along with the image of a man with a parrot, are thought possibly to depict allegories of the senses. Another version of this painting, of almost identical dimensions, was sold at Osenat, Fontainebleau, Paris, 1 October 2017, lot 154.