Eglon Hendrik van der Neer

Dr Hinrich Bischoff (1936–2005), by 1993;

Thence by inheritance.

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; and Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Vom Adel der Malerei: Holland um 1700, 14 October 2006 – 21 January 2007; 18 February – 28 May 2007; and 21 June – 30 September 2007, no. 62;

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, on loan by 1993 until March 2025.

C. Klein, in Das Kabinett des Sammlers, Gemalde vom XV. Bis XVIII. Jahrhundert, E. Mai (ed.), Cologne 1993, pp. 274–76, no. 108, reproduced in colour (as attributed to Adriaen van der Werff);

E. Schavemaker, in Vom Adel der Malerei: Holland um 1700, E. Mai, S. Paarlberg and G.J. M. Weber (eds), exh. cat., Cologne, Dordrecht and Kassel 2006–2007, pp. 228 and 230–31, no. 62, reproduced in colour;

E. Schavemaker, Eglon van der Neer (1635/36–1703). Zijn leven en werk, Maastricht 2009, pp. 153–155 and 392–93, fig. 110, no. 69, reproduced in colour;

E. Schavemaker, Eglon Hendrik van der Neer, Doornspijk 2010, pp. 96–97 and 479, no. 68, fig. 10, reproduced in colour pl. XXII (dated 1675–77). 

Dating to the second half of the 1670s, this painting belongs to a relatively small group of works by Eglon Hendrik van der Neer depicting children engaged in mischief within an imaginary, almost theatrical, setting, contributing to a genre of painting established by earlier artists such as Jan Minese Molenaer (1610–68) and Jan Steen (1626–79). According to Eddy Schavemaker, this group 'from the 1670s contains some of Van der Neer’s best paintings, all of high and consistent quality.'¹

This painting may have been inspired by an earlier work by Domenicus van Tol (1630–76), which depicts a comparable composition — a group of children with a cat at an arched window holding a mousetrap (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).² The source of this subject is likely derived from Jacob Cats's (1577–1660) Proteus, ofte, Minne-beelden verandert in sinne-beelden, a book of emblems published in 1627, which consists of woodcuts accompanied by verses imparting moral lessons. More specifically, the emblem that depicts a mousetrap alongside the Latin motto: 'Fit Spolians Spolium' ('the thief becomes the prey'), warning readers that those who act greedily in love may themselves fall victim to the object of their desire.³

¹ Schavemaker 2010, p. 93.

² Inv. no. SK-A-417; oil on panel, 31 x 25 cm.; https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20026421

³ J. Cats, Proteus, ofte, Minne-beelden verandert in sinne-beelden, Rotterdam 1627, pp. 68–69, no. XII, reproduced; https://archive.org/details/proteusofteminne00cats/page/n117/mode/2up