Abraham Bloemaert

F.A.E. Bruyninckx (1719-1791), Archdeacon of Antwerp;

His sale, Antwerp, 1 August 1791, lot 197;

Professor Thomas Bodkin (1887-1961), Dublin and Birmingham, circa 1919;

Frans Butôt (1906-1992), Amsterdam;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 29 June 1966, lot 100;

With Shickman Gallery, New York, 1968;

Janet and John E. Marqusee, New York;

By whom anonymously sold, London, Sotheby's, 20 February 1974, lot 108;

Anonymous sale, Antwerp, Bernaerts, 16 February 2021, lot 80 (as after Bloemaert).

T. Bodkin, "Two unrecorded landscapes by Abraham Bloemaert," in Oud Holland 46 (1929), p. 102, reproduced with detail of signature;

M. Woodall, Some Dutch Cabinet Pictures of the 17th Century, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham 1950, cat. no. 3;

M.G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons. Paintings and Prints, Doornspijk 1993, p. 338, cat. no. 543, reproduced fig. 728;

G. Seelig, Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651): Studien zur Utrechter Malerei um 1620, Berlin 1997, p. 297, cat. no. A81.

Birmingham, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Some Dutch Cabinet Pictures, 26 August - 8 October 1950, no. 3.

Rediscovered and published in 1929 by Thomas Bodkin, then-Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, this charming picture is an important affition to the oeuvre of Abraham Bloemaert. Bodkin reputedly purchased the panel in "an excessively dirty condition" from a small art dealer in Dublin along with a second painting by Bloemaert now in the Walters Museum in Baltimore.¹ Though no longer perceptible, according to his account the panel was signed and dated 1650, making this the last known work by the eighty-six year old artist.² While this composition was unknown for centuries prior to its rediscovery in the early twentieth century, the figure of the cow in the present work was reproduced in an engraving by the artist's son, Frederick Bloemaert, in the eighth part of a drawing book which he compiled after his father's studies.³ Steady and broad-shouldered, the position of the animal alongside its herdsman consciously evokes Lucas van Leyden's celebrated "Farmers and Cows" print of 1510. As the central focus of this intimate composition, the cow signals signals the rich Dutch Golden Age tradition of landscape painting where the bull became a symbol of Holland and its prosperity.

¹ Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, oil on canvas, inv. no. 37.2505

²For a reproduction of the signature and date, see T. Bodkin, "Two unrecorded landscapes by Abraham Bloemaert," in Oud Holland 46 (1929), p. 103.

³ See F. Bloemaert, Oorspronkelyk en vermaard konstryk tekenboek, B. Picart (ed), Amsterdam 1740, reproduced plate 161.