Visit to the Tenants

Described by Klaus Ertz as ‘eine qualitavolle Arbeit von Maeten van Cleve’, this panel is an excellent example of one of Marten van Cleve’s most popular early compositions. The subject ultimately derives from a lost painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, known through copies by his sons Pieter Brueghel the Younger (Florence, Museo Stibbert) and Jan Breughel the Elder (fig. 1; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). While interpretation of this Brueghelian subject has varied, the most convincing explanation is that it represents a wealthy bourgeois couple visiting the country home of their child’s wet-nurse, shown in the centre of this painting. Van Cleve painted more than twenty versions of his own, unique interpretation of the scene (see K. Ertz, Marten van Cleve 1524-1581: Kritischer katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Lingen, 2014, pp. 185-9, nos. 107-119), each varying considerably in size, details and figure arrangements. In a number of these treatments van Cleve extended his composition to the left to include a group of drinkers at a table, while in this case he introduces a view into a landscape through an open door. Faggin noted that van Cleve’s various depictions of the this subject date to relatively early in the painter’s career, circa 1550-60, revealing stylistic affinities with the work of van Cleve’s master, Frans Floris (‘De genre-schilder Marten van Cleef’, Oud Holland, LXXX, no. 1, 1965, p. 34).