A rabbit and an earthenware vessel, hanging on a door

The attribution of this enigmatic painting remains elusive, though a number of names have been associated with it in the past. In the nineteenth century the work was attributed to the Leiden fijnschilder painter Gerard Dou, under whose name it was lent to the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition by Robert Napier. Other names have included Egbert van der Poel, Hendrik Martensz. Sorgh of Rotterdam, and, somewhat puzzlingly, Paulus Potter. It has also been tentatively attributed to Delft's Carel Fabritius, no doubt inspired by optimistic comparisons with his famous Goldfinch (The Hague, Mauritshuis).

More recently, the painting has been associated with Samuel van Hoogstraten, who was originally from Dordrecht but worked in Amsterdam and was renowned for his sophisticated trompe l'oeils. The soft execution and shadowing, and surely the motif of the rabbit also, has invoked comparisons to Jean-Siméon Chardin and other French eighteenth-century painters. The composition of this work is also perplexing: diagonal lines suggest the profile of a door, but the earthenware vessel would hang on its very edge. The panel’s small scale could indicate that it was once itself set into a cabinet door.

Although the painter has eluded identification to date, dendrochronological analysis indicates that the panel dates from circa 1606 to 1660 (report by Ian Tyers, June 2025, available upon request). The panel is Baltic oak, indicating a northern European origin, and by the 1650s this wood was very rarely used. It was converted to an octagon at some stage in its lifetime by the removal of its corners, but the bevelling on the reverse shows it was originally a conventional rectangular panel; the cutting of each corner differs slightly in profile, suggesting that the modifications were not made by a professional craftsman.