Jan van Bijlert

With Rafael Valls, London, 1988;
With Jean-Max Tassel, 1990.

P.H. Janssen, Jan van Bijlert, Amsterdam & Philadephia, 1998, p. 143, cat. no. 116, reproduced plate 69.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The canvas has been comparatively recently lined onto a new keyed wooden stretcher and this is ensuring a sound and secure structural support and has successfully secured the overall pattern of slightly raised lines of drying craquelure. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of retouchings which appear to have been carefully applied and are most concentrated on the left shoulder and across the back of the sitter. There are also retouchings in the darker shadows of her neck and small scattered spots on her face and left hand. There is a fine line of inpainting which appears to cover a fracture in the paint surface. This runs across the left side of her mouth and into her cheek, the horizontal line of which is approximately 4.5 cm in length and the vertical line across her left cheek approximately 2 cm in length. There is a more concentrated area of retouching in the dark background just to the left of the sitter's face and a further area in the background between her pearls and the right vertical framing edge. There are other scattered retouchings and there may be other retouchings beneath older varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. The fine detail of the painting would be appear to be intact and well preserved. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition having been carefully conserved and restored in the past.
"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."

In this painting, whose sensuousness borders on the downright naughty, Bijlert takes evident delight in his subject's naked flesh and curvacious figure, contrasting the smooth texture of her skin with the soft fur of the kitten that she is caressing. 

As Janssens (see Literature) notes, this likely portrays a courtesan. She is seen in a state of deshabillé, with her hair decorated in fine jewels and feathers, her face heavily made-up, and plays with a cat, an animal that in both art and literature of the time had erotic connotations; its presence here brings to mind the Dutch expression de kat in het donker knijpen ('to pinch a cat in the dark'). Moreover, the word 'cat' was used as slang for a girl or a woman. The cat here takes the place of the more-commonly used lute, amongst the Utrecht Caravaggisti, to signify lust. In what is perhaps the most comparable work by Bijlert in Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, the sitter, and quite possibly the same model, is shown in the same pose but tuning a lute, the tuning of her instrument a metaphor for preparing for love.¹

The pose, in which we see the girl with her back to us looking back over her shoulder, has been said to derive from Orazio Gentileschi's Sibyl from the early 1620s.² There are in fact several possible references though, including the luteplayer in Hendrick ter Brugghen's Concert.³

Paul Huys Janssen dates the painting to circa 1630-35.

1. Janssen, under Literature, pp. 142–43, cat. no. 115, reproduced plate 68.
2. Houston, Museum of Fine Arts.
3. London, National Gallery.