Plaice, skate and other fish beside a barrel

The word 'Lent' ('Vasten') on the reverse of the panel suggests that the subject of the painting may be connected to the religious practice of eating fish during the period of Lent, while the inscription on the front means 'full and sweet' and can be seen as a description of the contents of the barrel.

The present work is closely related to one of a pair of paintings, representing the same subject, with Richard Green in 1996 (cat. no. 20), which also includes instruments of the Passion that link it more clearly to Lent, while its pendant (cat. no. 21) depicts items related to the feast of Saint Nicholas.

We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorisches Documentatie for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and for confirming the attribution from a transparency.