Peasants carousing in a tavern

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO ADRIAEN BROUWER (OUDENAARDE 1605/ 6-1638 ANTWERP)
Peasants carousing in a tavern
oil on panel
13 x 19 ½ in. (33 x 49.5 cm.)

Provenance

(Probably) acquired in 1790 by Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (1739-1802), Broadlands, Hampshire, and by descent to,
Wilfred William Ashley, Baron Mount Temple (1867-1939), Broadlands, Hampshire, and by descent to his daughter,
Edwina Cynthia Annette Mountbatten, Vicereine of India, and later Countess of Burma (1901-1960), Broadlands, Hampshire.
(Probably) with Captain Ernest Vivian Joseph, by 1949, and by whom sold on behalf of 17th Century Masters, Ltd., London, to the following,
with W.E. Duits, London, where acquired for £5,000 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on 13 December 1956.

Literature

'Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,' The Burlington Magazine, December 1953, pl. XV, as Adriaen Brouwer.
'Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: October-December 1956,' Art Quarterly, Spring 1957, p. 94.
Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Autumn 1958, p. 105, illustrated.
G. Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, The Hague, 1962, pp. 58-59 and 185, no. 33, illustrated, as 'a studio repetition after Brouwer, possibly with his cooperation'.
J. Spear, The Fine Arts Cookbook II, Boston, 1981, p.58, illustrated.
J. Edwards, Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin de XVIIIe siècle Alexandre-Joseph Paillet, Paris, 1984, p. 256, no. 7.
A.R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Boston, 1985, p. 40, illustrated, as Adriaen Brouwer.
J. Welu and P. Biesboer, Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and her World, Zwolle, 1993, pp. 329-330, fig. 36d.
M. Adelman, Getting High: The Seventeenth Century Tavern Scenes of Adriaen Brouwer, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Temple University, 2000, p. 35, fig. 12, as Adriaen Brower.
D. Carr and C. Hartley, 'The Netherlands and Scandinavia,' A New World: Art of the Americas, Boston, 2010, pp. 225-226 and 330, illustrated, as Adriaen Brouwer.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Adriaen Brouwer's paintings are rare, with only about sixty securely attributed works known today, most of which depict peasants in taverns or kitchens. Brouwer's particular flair for capturing the comedy and color of everyday life was recognized by his fellow painters. Both Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn, for example, owned paintings by him. Here, merry-makers in a humble kitchen raise their tankard, prepare tobacco and blow smoke through their noses.

Two additional versions of the present composition are known, one in a private collection in Berlin (sold Koller, Zurich, 22 March 2024, lot 3040), and another formerly in the collection of S. von Schidlowski, St. Petersburg. Gerard Knuttel considered all three to be copies after an untraced prime, with the present example potentially including the master's participation (loc. cit.).

Dendrochronological examination of the single-board panel undertaken by Peter Klein on 23 May 2014 on behalf of the museum shows 256 growth rings, including 12 sapwood rings, with an earliest felling date of 1636, when Brouwer was still active.

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