Master Paintings Part II

Master Paintings Part II

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 467. A Shepherd Boy in a Landscape, Playing the Recorder.

Netherlandish School, 17th century

A Shepherd Boy in a Landscape, Playing the Recorder

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Netherlandish School, 17th century

A Shepherd Boy in a Landscape, Playing the Recorder


oil on canvas

canvas: 27 ¾ by 23 ⅝ in.; 70.5 by 60.0 cm

framed: 34 ¼ by 30 ¼ in.; 86.9 by 76.7 cm

Baron Vetter von der Lilie, Hautzenbichl Castle, Knittelfeld, Austria, until 1950;

From whom acquired and thence by descent in the family;

By whom anonymously sold, Cologne, Lempertz, 15 November 2014, lot 1042 (as Attributed to Jan Miel);

Where acquired by the present owner.

This animated depiction of a shepherd boy playing a recorder in a landscape appears to have been painted by a Netherlandish artist working during the first half of the seventeenth century. The theme of the musical shepherd, in addition to constituting a realist genre study of the common man, celebrated the charms of pastoral life, thus appealing to a sophisticated urban clientele. The subject was taken up by various Northern artists including, among others, Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), by whom an example of 1621 is today in the Staatliche Museen, Kassel,1 and Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638).2 The theme remained popular during the later 17th century, as evidenced by Govaert Flinck's painting of 1654 in the Leiden Collection, New York.3


The composition incorporates a number of symbolic motifs: the recorder, which often features in vanitas still lifes of this period, represents the transience of sexual love. The medlars at lower left symbolize the passing of time, transformation and decay, as they undergo a process known as bletting, during which the fruit grows sweeter and ripens to the point of softening, as here portrayed.


1 inv. no. GK 180; oil on canvas, 71.3 by 55.8 cm; https://altemeister.museum-kassel.de/32145/.

2 A monogrammed work by Moreelse, dated 1637, sold in Belgium at Hotel des vente Legros, 22 February 2018, lot 269, for €90,000; oil on panel, 73 by 58 cm. A treatment attributed to Moreelse's son, Johannes Pauwelsz. Moreelse (after 1602–1634), is in the Kunstmuseum, Basel: inv. no. 535, oil on canvas, 107.8 by 92.5 cm; https://sammlungonline.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=2702&viewType=detailView.

3 Inv. no. GF-101; oil on canvas, 139 by 170 cm; https://www.theleidencollection.com/artwork/elegant-shepherdess-listening-to-a-shepherd-playing-the-recorder-in-an-arcadian-landscape/.