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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Willem van de Watering and Fred Meijer of the RKD for confriming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Very little is known about the life of Brekelenkam, but he probably trained in Leiden under Gerrit Dou. In 1648 he is recorded as a founder member of the Guild of St. Luke in that town, where he seems to have remained for the whole of his life. He specialised in genre scenes, although he did also paint portraits and some still lifes.
The present work, dated 1653, is unusual in Brekelenkam's oeuvre for its refinement and high degree of finish, which places it closer to the Leiden 'fine' painters centered around Dou, than some of his more painterly works of the period. The elegantly dressed lady may also have been the sitter for a bust length portrait by Brekelenkam sold in these Rooms, 7 February 1991, lot 44.
Brekelenkam makes use of a number of objects carefully placed in the interior, which add a symbolic dimension to this simple domestic scene. The gloves on the table suggest the absence of a loved one, perhaps the lady's husband. This absence is further implied by the musical instruments: the recorder lying on top of an open score and the closed spinet standing in the background, which would be its accompaniment. The small dog, beautifully painted, curled up in the foreground, is usually symbolic of fidelity, while the map on the wall behind the sitter brings the outside world into this domestic interior. It may suggest that the absent husband is away travelling in foreign lands. Maps were a common feature in such pictures, appearing in a number of other works by Brekelenkam (for example, the Confidential Conversation, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Women sewing, in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). The map of Europe depicted in the present work may be that designed by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), one of the great Dutch cartographers, and such maps were highly prized; a similar map of Europe can also be seen in Vermeer's Lady tuning a lute (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
Very little is known about the life of Brekelenkam, but he probably trained in Leiden under Gerrit Dou. In 1648 he is recorded as a founder member of the Guild of St. Luke in that town, where he seems to have remained for the whole of his life. He specialised in genre scenes, although he did also paint portraits and some still lifes.
The present work, dated 1653, is unusual in Brekelenkam's oeuvre for its refinement and high degree of finish, which places it closer to the Leiden 'fine' painters centered around Dou, than some of his more painterly works of the period. The elegantly dressed lady may also have been the sitter for a bust length portrait by Brekelenkam sold in these Rooms, 7 February 1991, lot 44.
Brekelenkam makes use of a number of objects carefully placed in the interior, which add a symbolic dimension to this simple domestic scene. The gloves on the table suggest the absence of a loved one, perhaps the lady's husband. This absence is further implied by the musical instruments: the recorder lying on top of an open score and the closed spinet standing in the background, which would be its accompaniment. The small dog, beautifully painted, curled up in the foreground, is usually symbolic of fidelity, while the map on the wall behind the sitter brings the outside world into this domestic interior. It may suggest that the absent husband is away travelling in foreign lands. Maps were a common feature in such pictures, appearing in a number of other works by Brekelenkam (for example, the Confidential Conversation, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Women sewing, in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). The map of Europe depicted in the present work may be that designed by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), one of the great Dutch cartographers, and such maps were highly prized; a similar map of Europe can also be seen in Vermeer's Lady tuning a lute (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).