QUIRINGH GERRITSZ. VAN BREKELENKAM | INTERIOR WITH A GENTLEMAN PULLING ON HIS BOOTS, ATTENDED BY A PAGE

Sale Dr. H. Schulhof et al., Berlin, Lepke, 17/18 May 1892, lot 11;

Sale Dr. H. Goecke et al., Cologne, Heberle, 5/6 June 1893, lot 125; 

Sale Arthur Kay, London, Christie's, 11 May 1901, lot 13 (as dated 1661);

Sale Lord Swaythling, London, Christie's, 12 July 1946, lot 18; 

A. Weeker, London, 1951; 

The British Rail Pension Fund;

Sale Amsterdam, Sotheby’s, 18 November 1975, lot. 16;

With Gebr. Douwes Gallery, Amsterdam/London, 1976;

On loan to the Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery, England, 1977-1993;

Sale, The British Rail Pension Fund, London, Sotheby’s, December 1994, lot 20 (as monogrammed and dated 1661); 

With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1995; 

Private collection, Netherlands;

Private collection, France.

S.J. Gudlaugsson, Gerard Ter Borgh, The Hague 1959/60, vol. II, p .278, under no. D21 (as incorrectly attributed to Ter Borch);

A. Lasius, Quiringh Gerritsz. van Brekelenkam, Ph.D. diss., p. 309, no. 90 (as dated 1661);

A. Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, Doornspijk 1992, pp. 105-6, no. 90 (as monogrammed and dated 1661).

"What I admire most about this genre painting is its candid representation of an upper middle class Dutch interior, with the furnishing we recognize from Holland’s Golden Age. We are reminded that in this period there were no bedrooms per se, but the four poster bed with its heavy protective curtains was often situated in the living room, not far from the warmth of the family hearth. A man pulls on his boots, while a young boy waits patiently beside him, holding the man's broad brimmed hat. We feel that we are catching a glimpse of family life during an unimportant, everyday moment, which is, after all, the essential appeal of genre painting."

Otto Naumann

Quiringh Gerritsz. van Brekelenkam probably trained with the celebrated Leiden fijnschilder Gerard Dou, and like Dou he elevated everyday subjects to refined and elegant scenes. Although his first known painting is dated 1644, he was only admitted to the Leiden guild in 1648, and lived and worked there until his death. This picture dates from Brekelenkam’s most productive period, between 1660 and 1664, when he painted higher quality pictures, and dated his works more frequently, than before or after. Lasius (see Literature) suggests that this may have been because both Gabriel Metsu and Jan Steen had left Leiden, so that Brekelenkam had a more dominant position in the local market for genre pictures.¹

In the present painting a man pulls on his boots as a young boy waits to hand him his felt hat. Seventeenth century Dutch homes typically did not include separate bedrooms, and the four-poster bed in the background of the living area gives it a cozy ambiance. The paintings hanging on the rear wall indicate that this family home belongs to the upper-middle class, which was constantly growing in the Dutch Golden Age.

1. A. Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, Doornspijk 1992, p. 70.