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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Willem van de Watering for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
The artist, a native of Haarlem, studied under Hendrik Mommers and Adriaen van Ostade, although his work - noticeably in the present painting - shows in particular the influence of Jan Steen, who lived in Haarlem in the 1660s, and it has therefore been suggested that Brakenburg worked at some point in Steen's studio. In 1687 Brakenburg joined the Guild of Saint Luke, but his work seems to have tailed off in the 1690s, a change that Weyerman (De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlantsche Konst-schilders en Konst-schilderessen, The Hague, 1729, 3, p. 229), who memorably described the artist as fickle 'as March sunshine', accounted for by dypsomania. An unsigned version of this composition, possibly a copy, was sold, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 10 November 1998, lot 4, as Hendrick de Valk.
The artist, a native of Haarlem, studied under Hendrik Mommers and Adriaen van Ostade, although his work - noticeably in the present painting - shows in particular the influence of Jan Steen, who lived in Haarlem in the 1660s, and it has therefore been suggested that Brakenburg worked at some point in Steen's studio. In 1687 Brakenburg joined the Guild of Saint Luke, but his work seems to have tailed off in the 1690s, a change that Weyerman (De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlantsche Konst-schilders en Konst-schilderessen, The Hague, 1729, 3, p. 229), who memorably described the artist as fickle 'as March sunshine', accounted for by dypsomania. An unsigned version of this composition, possibly a copy, was sold, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 10 November 1998, lot 4, as Hendrick de Valk.