亞伯拉罕·丹尼爾斯‧洪迪厄斯

H.L. Bischoffsheim, Bute House, London;
His sale, London, Christie's, 7 May 1926, lot 110 (as J.B. Weenix and A. Hondius, sold with a pendant);
There acquired by Parsons;
With Richard Green Gallery, London, by 1994;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's 16 May 1996, lot 86, where acquired.

L.B. Harwood, in A Golden Harvest, Paintings by Adam Pynacker, exhibition catalogue, Williamstown 1994, pp. 25-26, reproduced fig. 20;
M. Peyser-Verhaar, "Abraham Hondius: his life and background," in Oud Holland, vol. 112, no. 2/3, 1998, p. 151, reproduced p. 152, fig. 1.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on oak panel seems to be more or less clean. The reverse of the panel shows an old cradle. The panel is in beautiful condition, and is made from two sections joined horizontally through the center. This original join is only slightly visible in a crack in the castle on the cliff on the left side and in the hanging bird on the right side. There is slight thinness in the dark colors around the heads of the figures on the right which has received a few retouches. The condition is clearly extremely good in the remainder of the picture. The signature seems to be undamaged. There are a few spots of thinness and old varnish in this area. Although the signature reads very strongly under ultraviolet light, it seems original and period. The few retouches that have been added in the darkest colors on the right should be corrected.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Hondius was born in Rotterdam where he lived until 1659. He then spent a number of years in Amsterdam after which he moved to London circa 1671, remaining there for the rest of his life.  This Italianate landscape with sportsmen and their dogs outside an inn is an early work, and painted while Hondius was still living and working in his native city.  As Marijke Peyser-Verhaar points out (see Literature), although it is not known with whom Hondius trained, the present work, painted when the artist was only about twenty years old, demonstrates his already considerable skill.  When this painting was sold in 1996 (see Provenance), the sale catalogue referenced a letter, dated 20 December 1990, from Rudolf  E.O. Ekkart, formerly with the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, in which he states that this painting is one of the earliest dated works by the artist.  He also notes that though the signature differs from the artist’s later signatures, “there can be no doubt that the painter is the same as the Rotterdam artist who later worked in Amsterdam and London and is better known for his later, more violent hunting scenes, that are related to the works of Flemish masters like Frans Synders and Jan Fyt.”  Another painting by Hondius of the same date, and signed in a similar way, was in the A. Friedman collection, Stockholm.¹

1.  See B. Rapp, “Abraham  Hondius," in Oud Holland, vol. 64, no. 2, 1949, pp. 65-66, reproduced p. 67, fig. 2.