Putti in a wooded landscape with a bird and a lap-dog

Dirck van der Aa was first apprenticed to the Swiss artist Johann Heinrich Keller (1692-1765) and then the decorator Gerrit Mes with whom he would later open a workshop. He became a member of the Academy of Painters in his native city of The Hague in 1755, establishing himself as a specialist painter of decorative grisailles, often featuring groups of putti engaged in various light-hearted activities. His patrons included William IV for whose residence in The Hague he painted a series of canvases in 1768. His oeuvre consists of a relatively small number of signed grisailles of unusually fine quality. The present work is closely related to a slightly earlier picture by the artist, dated 1772 (The Netherlands, private collection), in which the composition is reversed and has numerous differences. This example may also be compared to the Allegories of Summer and Autumn, dated 1775, sold at Christie's, New York, 23 May 1997, lot 31 ($101,500).

The iconography of the present work is a charming play on the attributes of innocence and experience beloved by Rococo painters. The putti on the cloud in the upper register are playing with a bird which is on the wing, seemingly flying away -- one of them holds an open cage from which it has escaped. At second glance, however, one sees that the bird is still tethered, by means of an almost imperceptibly finely traced line, to the elegant perch held by another. Meanwhile, in the foreground, two other putti are teaching a lap-dog how to walk -- an allegory of coming of age which seems particularly apposite in a picture staffed by angel-faced toddlers.