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拍品專文
The son of Flemish parents, de Bloot was raised in Rotterdam. He married three times and it is thought that he was relatively wealthy, but otherwise little is known about his life. It is not known under whom he trained as an artist. He produced a surprisingly large oeuvre consisting primarily of bawdy peasant scenes that reveal the influence of Adriaen Brouwer and David Teniers II. He was also an accomplished landscape painter and in this field was strongly affected by Van Goyen's work of circa 1630. Beck lists eighteen 'pure' landscapes all of which he dates to early in the artist's career, before 1640 (see H.-U. Beck, Künstler um Jan van Goyen, Doornspijk, 1991, pp. 42-49, nos. 61-78).
The present work successfully combines de Bloot's interest in landscape and genre painting. As is characteristic in his landscapes, the scene is composed using a dark foreground contrasted against a strongly illuminated middleground, enabling him to achieve a fine sense of distance. Particularly admirable is his rendering of the rickety thatched tavern that dominates the left side of the composition. This emphasis on the landscape suggests a date of circa 1640, in keeping with Beck's dating of the above-mentioned views. Another treatment of this theme, with figures outside a tavern on the left side, can be seen in the picture dated 1639 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The peasants in the Amsterdam picture do not appear to have indulged themselves quite as much as the tavern drinkers here. One of them has collapsed in the right foreground where he is shown prostrate by a pig, probably intended as a deliberate allusion to the parable of the Prodigal Son. Another is seen vomiting at the table outside the tavern in similar fashion to a figure who features in a picture of the same subject sold in these Rooms, 29 June 1973, lot 19.
The present work successfully combines de Bloot's interest in landscape and genre painting. As is characteristic in his landscapes, the scene is composed using a dark foreground contrasted against a strongly illuminated middleground, enabling him to achieve a fine sense of distance. Particularly admirable is his rendering of the rickety thatched tavern that dominates the left side of the composition. This emphasis on the landscape suggests a date of circa 1640, in keeping with Beck's dating of the above-mentioned views. Another treatment of this theme, with figures outside a tavern on the left side, can be seen in the picture dated 1639 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The peasants in the Amsterdam picture do not appear to have indulged themselves quite as much as the tavern drinkers here. One of them has collapsed in the right foreground where he is shown prostrate by a pig, probably intended as a deliberate allusion to the parable of the Prodigal Son. Another is seen vomiting at the table outside the tavern in similar fashion to a figure who features in a picture of the same subject sold in these Rooms, 29 June 1973, lot 19.