STUDIO OF JACOB JORDAENS ANTWERP 1593 - 1678 | The interrupted banquet

Alphonse Allard Collection, Brussels;
Comtesse de X..., her sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 19 June 1934, lot 32, 12.500 francs to M. Chausson (as by Jordaens);
Château de Pontchartrain, Jouars-Pontchartrain.

This large composition shows a rarely depicted subject in Jordaens's oeuvre. A drawing entitled 'Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint', recorded in Brussels, shows a possible similar subject (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, inv. no. 1948; watercolour and gouache). It illustrates an old French saying, that if you try too much at the same time, you will not succeed in anything.