NICOLAES BERCHEM* (1620-1683)

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Details

NICOLAES BERCHEM* (1620-1683)

An Italianate Landscape with a Shepherdess holding a dish, seated on a white Horse and two Shepherds with Cows and Goats near a Fountain; and An Italianate Landscape with a Milkmaid holding a Pail and milking a Goat, another Milkmaid with Cows, Goats and a Sheep by a rocky Outcrop, a Peasant with a Donkey beyond

signed 'Berchem' and 'Berchem f'--oil on panel
14 7/8 x 20 7/8in. (37.8 x 53cm.) and
15¼ x 20 7/8in. (38.8 x 53cm.) A Pair (2)

Provenance

Antoni Bierens, Amsterdam; sale, Amsterdam, July 20, 1747, nos. 6 and 7 (fl. 1,010 for the pair to a member of the Bierens family) and by descent to
Jacob Bierens, Amsterdam, 1752
Mrs. M. de Haan-Bierens, Amsterdam; sale, Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, Tableaux Anciens de l'Ecole Hollandaise délaissé par M. David Bierens, Nov. 15, 1881, nos. 3 and 4, illustrated (fl. 5000 for the pair), where the property was offered under the name of her father

Literature

G. Hoet, ed., Catalogus van Schilderyen, In't Kabinet van den Heer Jacob Bierens in Amsterdam, in Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, II, p. 523, as "Twee weergaas zynde beelden en Beesten in een Landschap, door Nicolaas Berchem, etc."
C. Hofstede de Groot, Verzeichnis der Werke, etc., 1926, IX, p. 118, no. 230, and p. 245, no. 718, described in reverse
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., 1834, V, pp. 101-102, nos. 319 and 320, as Morning and Evening, described in reverse, and valued at 300 gns. for the pair

Exhibited

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Neérlandaise Tableaux Anciens, 1882, no. 8

Lot Essay

The introduction by Frederik Muller to the Bierens sale catalogue of 1881 states that many of the paintings which formed the Bierens collection passed directly from the artists' studios to the Bierens family, where they remain today [1881]. Only once, after the death of Antoni Bierens in the middle of the 18th century, was the collection offered at public auction. In this 1747 sale in Amsterdam the family was able to purchase back most of their paintings. Muller notes that they acquired those works which were the most beautiful and remarkable in the collection.

As early as 1834, Smith, loc. cit., in his monumental catalogue raisonné of the principal Dutch, Flemish and French painters of the seventeenth century, described the present paintings as "admirable productions of the master." Hofstede de Groot, loc. cit., echoed this, describing them individually as "vorzügliches bild." They both believed the pictures represented 'Morning' and 'Evening'