Jacobus Buys

The panel is flat and stable. The paint surface has a small number of unrestored losses, concentrated in the background above the woman and standing man and a 2cm square area of unrestored scratches in the lower right. Inspection under UV light reveals a small number of scattered retouchings, mainly in the upper left back ground, the figures remain untouched and well preserved.
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Jacobus Buys specialized in refined, elegant interior scenes which are also theatrical, and sometimes comic in character. He was a pupil of Cornelis Troost, and like his teacher painted and drew scenes from plays. It is sometimes difficult to tell whether pictures such as the present one by Buys (or some of those by Troost, come to that) are gently comic genre pieces or depictions of actual scenes in plays.¹ The painting may be compared to a pair of works, signed by Buys, sold in London, Christie’s, 5 July 1996, lot 2. They similarly show A Proposal and A Refusal but as separate compositions rather than combined into a single scene as in the present lot. For understandable reasons, Buys is often confused with his contemporary Nicolaas Muys.

1. See E. R. Mandle, Dutch Masterpieces from the Eighteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Minneapolis, etc. 1971, pp. 30–31.