ADRIAEN PIETERSZ. VAN DE VENNE | Armoe soeckt list: Poverty leads to Cunning

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 6 March 1942, lot 140 (as dated 1626);

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 17 November 1994, lot 74, where bought by Johnny van Haeften on behalf of a client;

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 May 2005, lot 32.

E. Buijsen, 'De op-en neergang van het menselijk leven in een schilderijenreeks van Adriaen van de Venne', in Oud Holland, vol. 126-2/3, 2013, p. 87, reproduced fig. 22 (as dated 1636).

Depictions of proverbs and images of misery, poverty, and death were recurrent themes in Adriaen van de Venne’s body of work, particularly in his grisailles. The present painting is an allegorical illustration of the proverb Armoe soeckt list, which translates as 'poverty leads to cunning'. Van de Venne himself elaborates on the meaning of this phrase in Tafereel van de belacchende werelt, a book he published in 1635:

Arremoe soeckt list,

Daar geen Rijcken op en gist.

Om de Kost wordt veel versonnen,

Kost wordt ongelijck gewonnen.

(‘Poverty leads to cunning,

Of which a rich man has no idea.

Much is plotted to make a living,

Livelihood is unequally earned.’)

Infrared photography done by Dr Edwin Buijsen has revealed underdrawing in the man and woman in the foreground, as well as in the group of beggars on the right. Its sketchy nature is typical of Van de Venne’s working procedure in the years 1627-36, thus supporting the notion that the painting is dated to 1636 - though the third digit of the date inscribed on the panel is difficult to interpret, on stylistic grounds it most likely resembles a '3'. No underdrawings have thus far been detected in pictures by Van de Venne dated after 1637, suggesting that he prepared his works directly in paint from this point onwards.