Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1566-1651 Utrecht)
PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN COLLECTION
Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1566-1651 Utrecht)

Two boys singing

细节
Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1566-1651 Utrecht)
Two boys singing
oil on canvas laid down on panel
26¾ x 20 5/8 in. (67.9 x 52.4 cm.), unframed
来源
(Possibly) Mrs. Anna Boom-van Jaarsveld, Amsterdam, 1678 (mentioned in her inventory as 'two singing youths by Abraham Blom' and estimated by Barent Graet and Adriaen Backer at Dfl. 5).
(Possibly) J. van den Berg; sale, Van der Schley, Amsterdam, 29 July 1776, lot 29.
(Possibly) J. Odon; sale, Van der Schley, Amsterdam, 6 September 1784, lot 90.
出版
M. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: paintings and prints, Doornspijk, 1993, p. 265, no. 397.

荣誉呈献

Alan Wintermute
Alan Wintermute

查阅状况报告或联络我们查询更多拍品资料

登入
浏览状况报告

拍品专文

This charming scene of two boys singing likely dates to around 1625, a period when Bloemaert experimented frequently with Caravaggesque lighting and genre subjects. He may have been looking to the works of his former pupil Gerrit van Honthorst, who had returned to Utrecht from Italy in 1620 and began producing paintings with such themes to great acclaim. Boy with a Rumbling Pot in a private collection (Roethlisberger, op. cit., no. 398), is another composition in this same vein.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Marcel Roethlisberger for confirming the attribution to Bloemaert on the basis of a photograph (private communication, 24 November 2008). He considers the present picture the rediscovered original that served as the basis for a famous print by Cornelis Bloemaert which identifies his father, Abraham Bloemaert, as the author of the original painting on which it was based (fig. 1; A. Bloem pinx C.B. sculp, upper left). Cornelis' print is inscribed "Wij singen vast wat nieuws, en hebben noch een buÿt Een kraekling is ons winst, maer tliedtken moet eerst wt."('We firmly sing something new, and also have a prize A cracker is our reward, but first we must complete the song') This text draws the viewer's attention to the cracker which, as Roethlisberger points out (loc. cit.), is a traditional symbol of the brittleness of life.