HIERONYMOUS JANSSENS (Antwerp 1624-1693)
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION 
HIERONYMOUS JANSSENS (Antwerp 1624-1693)

Ladies celebrating the birth of a child, with gentlemen looking on from behind a screen, in an interior

Details
HIERONYMOUS JANSSENS (Antwerp 1624-1693)
Ladies celebrating the birth of a child, with gentlemen looking on from behind a screen, in an interior
oil on canvas, unframed
31 x 46 in. (77.3 x 116.8 cm.)
Provenance
P.J. van Winjngaerst, as attributed to Gonzalez Coques.
Anon. Sale, Roos, Amsterdam, 7 November 1893, lot 21.
Anon. Sale, Christie's, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 104.
Literature
J.A. Welu, in the exhibition catalogue, The Collector's Cabinet: Flemish Paintings from New England Private Collections, 1983, p. 73, no. 18d, illustrated, as whereabouts unknown.

Lot Essay

The present work pictorializes some of the Netherlandish traditions connected to childbirth. The wicker seat (bakermat), in which the dry nurse (baker) sits near the fireplace, is large enough to contain the whole figure. Although the object is no longer used, the word itself survives in Dutch and Flemish as the synonym for birthplace. (For a more detailed discussion of the bakermat, see A. Knopper, In de kraam: Weternswaardugheden over oud-nederlandse kraamgebruiken, 1975, pp. 14-15).

Welu (op. cit., p. 75) mentions two other works by Janssens of the same subject, one formerly attributed to Anthonie Palamedesz (Charles T. Yerkes, Woodmere Art Gallery, Philadelphia, no. 140) and another formerly attributed to Philip van Dijk (Mme. Poullier-Ketele, Brussels, sale, Lorey Freres, 23 March 1924, lot 8).

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