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Lot Essay
This is one of a group of paintings that, along with depictions of The Collector of Tithes and The Giving of the Wedding Presents, have traditionally been attributed to Pieter Brueghel III (see, for example, G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 442). More recently, however, Klaus Ertz, in his 2000 catalogue raisonné of the work of Pieter II (Lingen, 2000, pp. 643-6 and 707-8, nos. 849-55), reassigned all three groups to the studio of the latter master. He noted, however, that the compositions originated with a third, as-yet unidentified hand, and were merely adopted and popularised by Pieter II. For the present composition he lists seven examples - to which group the present picture should be added - including three signed autograph works, one additionally dated 1620, three studio works and the last by a follower.
The subject matter follows in order from the above-mentioned Giving of the Wedding Presents - indeed several of the characters reappear in both compositions - and the two would presumably originally have been painted as pendants. The present scene depicts the opening of a traditional dance in which unmarried girls (called Catherinettes after the virgin Saint Catherine of Alexandria) up to the age of twenty-five would choose or, as by the two hatted men in the background here, be chosen by the unmarried men; the dance was then supposed to lead eventually to that couple's own marriage. The girls eligible for the dance are here depicted in the background with, in the foreground, the bride standing before her father and, on the dance floor, a man who would have been a part of the musical troupe and would have been responsible for ensuring the success of the event.
The subject matter follows in order from the above-mentioned Giving of the Wedding Presents - indeed several of the characters reappear in both compositions - and the two would presumably originally have been painted as pendants. The present scene depicts the opening of a traditional dance in which unmarried girls (called Catherinettes after the virgin Saint Catherine of Alexandria) up to the age of twenty-five would choose or, as by the two hatted men in the background here, be chosen by the unmarried men; the dance was then supposed to lead eventually to that couple's own marriage. The girls eligible for the dance are here depicted in the background with, in the foreground, the bride standing before her father and, on the dance floor, a man who would have been a part of the musical troupe and would have been responsible for ensuring the success of the event.