Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

Abraham van der Voort, Amsterdam, by 1620;¹

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, De Winter-Yver, 15 July 1772, lot 30;

Where acquired by Jean Yver, Amsterdam (active 1770-1777);

By whom sold, Amsterdam, Schley, 13 December 1802, lot 84;

Where acquired by Johannes Arnoldus;

Probably anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Schley, 16 October 1815, lot 38, (for 53 guilders to Adriaan de Lelie);²

S.M. de Boer;

His sale, Amsterdam, Brondgeest, 15 April 1840, lot 17, (for 33 guilders to Esser);

Merlo collection, Cologne, circa 1890;

Von Liphart collection, Ratshof near Dorpat, 1899;

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Christie's, 12 December 1986, lot 5 (for £18,000);

With Stanley Moss, Riverdale-on-Hudson, New York;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie’s, 10 January 1990, lot 177;

Dr. Hilary Koprowski and Dr. Irena Koprowska, New York;

By whom sold, New York, Sotheby's, 4 June 2014, lot 47;

Where acquired.

N. von Holst, “Über Einige Kunstwerke in Baltendeutschem Privatbesitz” in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 12/13 (1943), pp. 320, 336;

P.J.J. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem 1562-1638, A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné, Ghent 1999, pp. 136, 380, cat. no. 224, reproduced plate XXVIII.

The theme of unequal lovers has a long literary history, dating back to the Roman playwright Plautus (circa 254–184 B.C.) and carrying through to the works of Boccaccio, Erasmus and Sebastian Brant. In the visual arts, it most often appeared in prints, usually accompanied by a moralizing inscription. The theme took two different forms, that of an old woman soliciting a handsome young man, and, more commonly, an old man soliciting a pretty young woman. Here, Cornelis van Haarlem indicates the difference in ages quite subtly, adding a hint of gray to the man's beard.  The artist focuses instead on the mercenary aspects of the transaction, indicating the man's wealth by the fur on his cloak, the gold medal on his hat and, most transparently, the bulging money bag that the woman fondles in her right hand.

Cornelis made several paintings of Unequal Lovers, including an interesting variant with a third figure – a young man allied with the woman – one of which was sold in these Rooms on 31 January 2013, lot 5, for $340,000. All depict large figures, usually in half-length set against a nearly empty background. It was a format he used for many of his genre subjects to bring the viewer closer to the scene. Through the close cropping of the figures and heightened immediacy of their gestures, Cornelis underscores the impropriety of the relationship by implying that the match is monetarily motivated.

1. For further information on the provenance, including transcriptions of the Dutch notes and an English translation, see Van Thiel 1999, p. 380.

2. The consignor of the lot is identified as "Munk" in the copy of the auction catalogue in the Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin, Germany. Van Thiel felt the description in the catalogue was too brief to be certain that the picture is identical with the present work.