Karel Dujardin

Possibly M. Le Brun, Paris, circa 1790 (according to the 1810 Walsh Porter sale);
Daniel Mansveld, by whom sold, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, Vinkeles, August 13, 1806, lot 82, for fl. 1220 to Van Iperen;
M. Lafontaine, by whom sold, London, Christie's, June 13, 1807, lot 43, for £183, s. 15;
Possibly Walsh Porter;
Possibly his deceased sale, London, Christie's, April 14, 1810, lot 7, for £157, s. 10, to Mr. Barnett (as from Le Brun);
Possibly George Byng, London, 1834;
William Scrope, London, 1835;
Spencer Lucy collection;
Samson Wertheimer;
His sale, London, Christie's, March 19, 1892, lot 703, for 220 gns to George Salting;
George Salting, London, 1893;
Asher Wertheimer;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, March 9, 1923, lot 101 (as from Walsh Porter and George Byng collections);
With Clements, London, 1924;
Nicholas Argenti, Esq., London, 1936, until at least 1953;
With Edward Speelman, London, by whom exported to U.S.A., February 1983;
With French & Co., New York;
From whom purchased by Saul P. Steinberg, New York in 1987;
With Richard L. Feigen, New York
From whom purchased by the present collector.

London, British Institution, 1835, cat. no. 68 (where lent by W. Scrope);
London, Royal Academy, Burlington House, Exhibition of 17th Century Art in Europe, 1938, cat. no. 171;
London, Royal Academy, Burlington House, Dutch Pictures, 1450-1750, 1952-53, p. 87, cat. no. 461 (where lent by Nicholas Argenti);
London, Wildenstein & Co., Artists in 17th Century Rome, 1955, pp. 44-45, cat. no. 37, reproduced;
Rotterdam, Boymans van Beuningen Museum and Rome, Museo di Palazzo Venezia, Michael Sweerts e i Bamboccianti, 1958 (Rotterdam), cat. no. 72, reproduced; (Rome), p. 65, cat. no. 73, reproduced no. 83;
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Italian Recollections: Dutch Painters of the Golden Age, June 8-July 22, 1990, pp. 124-125, cat. no. 34, reproduced.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London 1834, vol. V, p. 253, cat. no. 62;
J. Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London 1842, p. 643, cat. no. 16;
G. Redford, A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art: 1628-1887, vol. I, London 1888, p. 103;
W. Roberts, Memorials of Christie's, vol. II, London 1897, p. 173;
Dr. H. Mireurs, Dictionnaire des Ventes d'Art, vol. IV, Paris/Marseilles 1911, p. 51;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, vol. I, London 1913, p. 305;
H. Cannons, Art Prices Current 1922-1923, vol. II, London 1923, cat. no. 2312;
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Hollandischen Maler des XVII Jahrhunderts, vol. IX, Esslingen/Paris 1926, p. 392, cat. no. 349;
E. K. Waterhouse, "Seventeenth Century Art in Europe at Burlington House (I): The Paintings" in The Burlington Magazine, vol. LXXII, 1938, p. 4., reproduced, pl. V-c;
H. Gerson, "Dutch Landscape," in The Burlington Magazine, vol. XCV, 1953, p. 51;
E. Brochhagen, Karel Dujardin, dissertation, Cologne 1958, p. 101;
E. Plietzch, Hollandische und Flamische Maler des XVII
Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1960, cat. no. 277;
G. Briganti, The Bamboccianti, Rome 1983, pp. 289, 293, reproduced fig. 11.7;
P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, Philadephia 1984, p. xxxiv, reproduced fig. 54;
J.M. Kilian, Karel Du Jardin, Amsterdam & Philadephia 2005, p. 196, no. 96, reproduced plate 78.

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 painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable and unabraded. The paint layer has been cleaned and if there are any retouches beyond what may be some fairly isolated spots, we are unaware of them. This is clearly a picture which has survived beautifully and should be celebrated as such.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Contemporary biographies of Karel Dujardin provide conflicting details of his artistic training. Houbraken describes him as being Nicolaes Berchem's ablest pupil, based on similarities in subject matter. His first works are dated around the mid-1640s. It has also been suggested that he studied under Pieter van Laer and Paulus Potter (an affinity with the latter can be noted in Dujardin's works of the 1650s). Whether there was an apprenticeship or not, it is certain that these were strong influences in the young artist's career.

Dujardin probably traveled to Lyon around 1650; an idea which is supported by a sensitive drawing on vellum signed and inscribed Dujardin fecit Paris in Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett.¹ His experience of art in France at the time was through works by Sébastien Bourdon, Simon Vouet, Laurent de la Hyre and Eustache le Suer. During this trip he met his wife, Suzanne von Royen, with whom he returned to Amsterdam in 1651. By 1656 Dujardin appears in the court capital, The Hague, as a founder of the artistic fraternity Pictura. He returned to Amsterdam around 1659 and his career flourished in the 1660s, a time when he produced portraits and spectacular history scenes, as well as his famous Italian landscapes. Dujardin left Amsterdam and sailed to Italy in 1675, due to political circumstances, and there he remained for the rest of his life.

Jennifer Kilian (see literature) dates this picture to the 1660s on comparison with two other works widely considered to be from those years, the Young Shepherd Playing with his Dog in The Hague, Mauritshuis², and the Boy Shovelling Refuse in Buckingham Palace.³  All three works are characterised by an increased corporeality of the figures and the artist's previous use of stark, bright colours gives way to more subtle nuances of grey, ochre and brown, enlivened only briefly by a flash of red or gold. Other than the harmony of tone, perhaps the most notable aspect of this exquisite work is the expression of the boy violinist, who connects with the spectator as he turns to his left and gazes out of the picture. In his depiction, Dujardin ennobles the bamboccianti subject, which was popularized by Pieter van Laer.

A note on the provenance:
The nineteenth and early twentieth century provenance of this work appears to have been somewhat confused with that of another work by Dujardin, his Wandering Musician that was formerly in the collection of the Earl of Strafford at Wrotham Park.⁴ At the Walsh Porter sale at Christie's in 1810 the painting was described as from the collection of Le Brun, Paris; however, it is not clear whether the Walsh Porter provenance belongs with this picture or the ex-Strafford picture as, when this latter was exhibited in 1952-3 at the Royal Academy it was also given the Walsh Porter provenance; the description in the 1810 Walsh Porter sale catalogue is not sufficient to distinguish between the two works. Furthermore, the subsequent sale catalogues from 1892 onwards cite George Byng in the provenance, but then so does the 1952-3 Royal Academy catalogue for the ex-Strafford picture (George Byng, 1819). The confusion may stem from the fact that both works depict similar subjects; the Royal Academy exhibition in 1952-3, where both works were exhibited, was supervised by Ellis Waterhouse but the cataloguing appears to have been left to two young scholars.

1  See J. Kilian, p. 427, fig. 4. 
2  Idem, under literature, pp. 178-9, no. 75, reproduced plate 61.
3  Idem, p. 186, no. 84, reproduced plate 68.
4  Idem, pp. 203-4, no. 107, reproduced plate 86.