Claes Molenaer

The Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna, no. 611, by 1927;
Anonymous sale, Munich, Weinmüller, 3/4 December 1958, lot 533; 
Anonymous sale, Munich, Weinmüller, 26/27 June 1963, lot 1154, where acquired by the present owner.

Wiesbaden, Museum Wiesbaden, 5 Sammler - 5 Meinungen, 8 April - 27 May 1973.

Dr. A. Kronfeld, Führer durch die Fürstlich Liechtensteinsche Gemäldegalerie in Wien, Vienna 1927, p. 120, no. 611.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is flat and well preserved with two secure joins. The paint layer is secure; there are some restored diagonal scratches in the sky to the left. Slight abrasion to the shadows of the houses, left, and to the exposed branches of the trees have lead to augmentation here. Apart from one or two further minor restorations the painting is in a good untouched original condition with well preserved crisp paint that saturates well. The varnish is moderately discoloured. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame, in good condition."
"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."

Framed on both sides by a cluster of buildings and with a sharp diagonal receding into the distance from the front right, this is one of Moleaner's most impressive compositions, the basic elements of which he repeated on several occasions. A very similar work, for example, is recorded by Walther Bernt with a Munich art dealer;¹ both works are built along the same compositional lines as laid out above and in each work several motifs recur, such as the boy on a small sledge being propelled across the ice by another of the same age. Similarly the grey horse stands beneath the town walls at the right, his pose slightly altered in each work, eating hay from a large sledge. The high quality of this painting is matched by its illustrious provenance, having been part of the celebrated Liechtenstein collection in the early 20th Century. 


1. W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. II, Munich 1948, no. 540, reproduced.