Lot Essay
Compare the identical composition, on panel measuring 125.7 x 94 cm, offered for sale at Christie's London, 14 December 1984, lot 70 as Floris van Dyck (H.Robels, Frans Snyders: Stilleben- und Tiermaler 1579-1657, 1989, p.174, n.5).
The composition follows the left half of the sketch in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (Robels, p.406, n.Z3, with ill.). The right half, depicting and old man holding up two ducks, might, as is suggested by Robels, p.174, have served as a pendant to the young woman, but no painted version of this composition is known.
Many features of the present picture are repeated in other works by Snyders. The physiognomy and dress of the maid is recalled in the kitchenmaid among game and vegetables in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne (Robels, p.175, n.7). An identical hanging hare is visible on the wall of the Boy in a store-room of 1610-1612 (Robels, p.176, n.8). The same vegetables and utensils, although distributed differently, are on a picture of a kitchenmaid in the Museé des Beaux Arts, Brussels, inv.n.3828 (see Joachim Beuckelaer: Het markt- en keukenstuk in de Nederlanden 1550-1560, Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten 1986-1987, p.169, n.41, as attributed to Samuel Hofmann.)
The attribution is kindly confirmed by Dr. Hella Robels on the basis of a photograph.
The composition follows the left half of the sketch in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (Robels, p.406, n.Z3, with ill.). The right half, depicting and old man holding up two ducks, might, as is suggested by Robels, p.174, have served as a pendant to the young woman, but no painted version of this composition is known.
Many features of the present picture are repeated in other works by Snyders. The physiognomy and dress of the maid is recalled in the kitchenmaid among game and vegetables in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne (Robels, p.175, n.7). An identical hanging hare is visible on the wall of the Boy in a store-room of 1610-1612 (Robels, p.176, n.8). The same vegetables and utensils, although distributed differently, are on a picture of a kitchenmaid in the Museé des Beaux Arts, Brussels, inv.n.3828 (see Joachim Beuckelaer: Het markt- en keukenstuk in de Nederlanden 1550-1560, Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten 1986-1987, p.169, n.41, as attributed to Samuel Hofmann.)
The attribution is kindly confirmed by Dr. Hella Robels on the basis of a photograph.