Petrus van Schendel

D.E. Schunk;

Sale, Christie’s, London, (date not known) lot 65;

Sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 31 October 1989, lot 117;

With Richard Green, Ltd., London;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, exhibition catalogue, London 1847, p. 29.

London, Royal Academy Exhibition, 1847, no. 657 (as A Dutch market–with effects of candlelight and moonlight) 

On his birthday April 21, 1845, Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870) moved with his wife Elisabeth Grasveld (1807-1850) and their nine children from The Hague to Schaerbeek near Brussels. Though his first great successes at home and abroad were born in the court city, there were personal and professional reasons to move. As he told his biographer, Domien Sleeckx (1818-1901), there was a shortage of suitable schooling for his children there and, although he did not mention this, undoubtedly greater sales opportunities for his work in Belgium where a new monied elite had emerged with collecting interests in contemporary art.

While van Schendel painted history subjects and portraits it was his genre scenes with markets lit by candle, lamp, and moonlight that garnered the most success. The artist kept an inventory of works he produced beginning in 1840 noting the subject, dimensions, what date he started working on the composition, and often also for whom it was intended and at what price. Regarding the present lot, he wrote on October 22, 1846, “'started dead-colouring a painting being a market scene with many figures, a game market by candle and moonlight, destined for the London exhibition.” The dimensions were recorded as 89 by 117.5 cm. In February 1847 he noted: “Finished the painting begun on 22 October last year, depicting a market by moon and candle light with a game stall in the foreground.” He then noted the dimensions and that he had sold it for 7,000 francs.This was an enormous sum for the time, many multiples of for example the annual income of a carpenter or bricklayer, which was about 350 francs. Van Schendel's accounts show that he had earned 17,748.51 francs that year, of which the sale of this painting constituted a significant portion. Interestingly, Van Schendel further noted that it was intended for an exhibition in London, where indeed it was exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibition and listed in the accompanying catalogue under number 657: “A Dutch market–with effects of candlelight and moonlight. It is possible that the painting remained in London and found its first buyer there.

A young mother in West Frisian dress, carrying a copper bucket for groceries, walks with her daughter and dog past a market stall with game and poultry. Van Schendel was a masterful painter of candlelight, a soft glow on full display here thanks to the prominent candle at the center of the stall, called a “slob,” wrapped with a protective paper cap to guard against the wind. Behind the stall, a passerby balancing a basket over his shoulder fixes his gaze on the young woman who looks defiantly at the viewer. The tall mast and sail of a ship moored along the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam registers the nearby port and hides the moon from view, though its light peaks out behind the sail to illuminate the buildings facades of the town–at right, the houses on Geldersekade, and, towards the middle, the towers of the old city gate, the so-called St. Anthoniespoort. The building served as a weighing house for commercial goods including tobacco, ship anchors, and cannons in the 17th century but by the 19th century transitioned from an industrial site to a more civic-minded social space, serving as a city fencing hall, a shelter for the cholera committee, a workshop for city oil lighting, and later housing the anatomical museum and fire department. In the foreground on the right, a boy sits on a wheelbarrow glancing at the better lit stall across the way while his mother, seated with her arms crossed, looks longingly at the passing family hoping they stop at her stall to shop for vegetables. Past this main scene are more market stalls and figures on the move, with the tall masts and sails of boats beyond. 

The artist made a painted study of the scene on the right (sold at Sotheby’s New York, 21 May 1987, lot 25), a practice he often did for larger compositions to perfect particular elements or experiment with variations and alternate arrangements. 

We are grateful to Dr. Jan M.M. de Meere for confirming the authenticity of this lot and for his assistance in the preparation of this note.