Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Willem Kalf
Barn interior with a woman churning butter
Lot Closed
March 24, 02:49 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Willem Kalf
Rotterdam 1619 - 1693 Amsterdam
Barn interior with a woman churning butter
signed centre left: KALF
oil on copper
unframed: 17.6 x 14.3 cm.; 6 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.
framed: 32.3 x 29.6 cm.; 12 3/4 x 11 5/8 in.
Lackmann collection, Frankfurt, 1887;
Stefan Carl Michel, Mainz;
By whom sold, Berlin, Lepke, 27 February 1917, lot 54;
Private collection, Paris;
Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 22-24 November 1984, lot 85;
With Norbert Pokutta, Munich, March 1987 (when exhibited at Pictura, Maastricht);
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Leo Spik, 9-11 December 2004, lot 319;
Private collection, West Germany;
Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 14 April 2005, lot 191, where acquired for the Wieg collection.
H. Thode, 'Die Ausstellung von Gemälden aus Mainzer Privatbesitz in Mainz im Mai 1887', in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 10, 1887, p. 415;
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna and Leipzig 1906, vol. I, p. 234;
L. Grisebach, Willem Kalf: 1619-1693, Berlin 1974, p. 225, cat. no. 35, reproduced fig. 36;
J. Giltaij, in J. Giltaij and F.G. Meijer, Gemaltes Licht. Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf 1619-1693, exh. cat., Berlin 2006, p. 56, cat. no. 8, reproduced.
Born into a Rotterdam patrician family, Willem Kalf moved to Paris before 1641, returning to Holland in circa 1646. While in Paris he joined the circle of Flemish artists in St Germain-des-Prés and painted his first known works, a group of small-scale rustic interiors and still lifes. The present work, on copper, dates to this time and is comparable to other interiors by Kalf depicting the same subject; these include the painting last recorded in the collection of Willem van der Vorm, Rotterdam,1 and that which sold in these rooms, 5 April 1995.2