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Lot Essay
The son of a German painter working at the court of King Christian IV of Denmark, Keilhau was apprenticed to the Copenhagen court painter, Maarten van Steenwinckel. In 1642 he entered the workshop of Rembrandt van Rhijn in Amsterdam where he worked for two years. The influence of Rembrandt is readily discernible in his early work, although he seems more representative of a Flemish Baroque style of painting. Already a well-established artist, he travelled to Italy in 1651 where he stayed in Bergamo. The Italian art of Bernardo Strozzi, Domenico Fetti and Giovanni Battista Langetti had a profound influence on his work.
We are grateful to Professor Mina Heimbürger for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph (letter, 16 October 2001). She points out that 'this beautiful painting' is probably the pendant to A sleeping girl with a fan by her side, a wicker basket at her feet in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (M. Heimbürger, Bernardo Keilhau, detto Monsü Bernardo, Rome, 1988, p. 206, no. 105, illustrated). She dates both pictures to circa 1655, just before the artist left for Rome in 1656. Similar in size, they were probably painted as overdoors for a bedroom in one of the sumptuous palaces in Bergamo, and depict different stages of sleep: the boy's eyelids weigh down as he starts to fall asleep, while the girl lies already slumbering. The broad brush technique, pronounced chiaroscuro and restless surface of the brightly coloured textiles are exemplary of the artist's mature style.
We are grateful to Professor Mina Heimbürger for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph (letter, 16 October 2001). She points out that 'this beautiful painting' is probably the pendant to A sleeping girl with a fan by her side, a wicker basket at her feet in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (M. Heimbürger, Bernardo Keilhau, detto Monsü Bernardo, Rome, 1988, p. 206, no. 105, illustrated). She dates both pictures to circa 1655, just before the artist left for Rome in 1656. Similar in size, they were probably painted as overdoors for a bedroom in one of the sumptuous palaces in Bergamo, and depict different stages of sleep: the boy's eyelids weigh down as he starts to fall asleep, while the girl lies already slumbering. The broad brush technique, pronounced chiaroscuro and restless surface of the brightly coloured textiles are exemplary of the artist's mature style.