HENDRICK MAERTENSZ. SORGH | A TAVERN SCENE WITH PEASANTS SMOKING AND DRINKING

Adolf Wollenberg (1874–1951/51), Berlin, by 1925;

His sale, Berlin, R. Lepke, 17 March 1932, lot 201, for 1400 Reichsmark;

With Daniel and Nathan Katz, Dieren, 1946;

With Galerie Kurt J. Müllenmeister, Solingen, 1970 (by whom advertised in Weltkunst, vol. 40, 1970, p. 1248, reproduced);

Girardet collection, Essen, by 1970;

Whence acquired in 1974.

Berlin, Der Akademie Der Künste, Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, July – August 1925, no. 362 (lent by Adolf Wollenberg);

Oelde, Rathaus der Stadt Oelde, Niederländische Originalgemälde der Zeitgenossen Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, 30 November – 17 December 1983;

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 59.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Akademie der Künste, Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz, exh. cat., Berlin 1925, p. 56, cat. no. 362;

A. Heppner, 'Rotterdam as the centre of a 'Dutch Teniers Group'', in Art in America, vol. 34, 1946, p. 21, reproduced fig. 6;

E. Edman, The Influence of David Teniers the Younger on the Watteau Circle, doctoral diss., Oberlin 1963, p. 149, reproduced fig. 44;

K.J. Müllenmeister, Aktuelle Themen und Beiträge über einige Werke niederländischer Maler, Solingen 1970, p. 17, reproduced;

L.T. Schneeman, Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh: a Painter of Rotterdam, doctoral diss., Pennsylvania State University 1982, p. 203, cat. no. 22, reproduced fig. 18;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 2, Genre, Münster/Hamburg/London 1996, pp. 218–21, cat. no. 53, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 75, reproduced in colour fig. 59.

Hendrick Maertensz. Sorgh was born, worked and died in the port city of Rotterdam in the Southern Netherlands. He was chiefly a genre painter executing portraits, scenes of young lovers music-making, and predominantly tavern interiors such as this. According to Houbraken he trained under David Teniers the Younger, although his work is in fact closer to that of Adriaen Brouwer, and at the end of his career the influence of Jan Steen is apparent – here, the figure at the back with his raised hands and jovial expression is particularly reminiscent of the lampooning Steen.

This painting was in the collection of the great pre-war Berlin architect Adolf Wollenberg who left Berlin in 1933 (following the sale of much of his collection at Lepke in 1932, see Provenance), and went into exile in Paris, and later in London.