JAN JOSEF HOREMANS THE YOUNGER | An elegant interior with figures having a tea party

Mr Reginald Toms (1892-1978), Chateau de Coinsins, Switzerland;

His sale, London, Sotheby's, 7-9 June 1995, lot 270 (as Horemans the Elder, and one of a pair), where acquired.

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 2, Genre, Münster/Hamburg/London 1996, pp. 140-43, cat. no. 33, reproduced in colour.

Jan Josef Horemans the Younger qualified as a master of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp on 10 February 1767 and was dean of the guild on two occasions (1768–69 and 1775–76). He was a placid apologist for bourgeois virtues and, following his father’s example, admirably recreated the atmosphere of his age in a multitude of paintings such as the present one. He signed in the same way as his father, but his palette is generally lighter, earning him the nickname 'Le Clair.'