Adriaen Brouwer

With J. Leegenhoek, Paris;

From whom acquired by René Küss (1913-2006), circa 1960;

Thereafter acquired by the present collector.

This composition depicting the personification of Avarice is known in at least ten versions, the prime of which Karolien de Clippel has convincingly attributed to Adriaen Brouwer.¹ The work probably originally comprised a series depicting the seven deadly sins, a popular subject in the early seventeenth century. 

¹ See K. de Clippel, Joos van Craesbeeck (1605/06 – ca. 1660): Een Brabants Genreschilder, Belgium 2006, pp. 288-289.