Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection

Willem Kalf

Barn interior with a woman churning butter

VAT reduced rate

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.

Traditionally believed to have been in the Galerie Orléans, France;
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.

Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle, Verzeichniß der in der Kunsthalle zu Düsseldorf ausgestellten Bilder von älteren Meistern, September - October 1886, no. 176;
Mainz, Verzeichniß der im Stadtheater zu Mainz ausgestellten Bilder aus Mainzer Privatbesitz, May 1887, no. 110;
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Gemaltes Licht. Die Stilleben von Willem Kalf 1619-1693, 25 November 2006 - 18 February 2007, no. 8.

W. Bode, 'Die Ausstellungen alter Gemälde aus Privatbesitz in Düsseldorf und Brüssel im Herbst 1886', in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 10, 1887, p. 43;
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

¹ https://rkd.nl/explore/images/203373

² https://rkd.nl/explore/images/64372