(Delft 1589–1662 The Hague)
An illustration of a Dutch proverb with two peddlers and their
merchandise,
inscribed: ‘om the winst te doen’,
oil on panel, 33 x 26 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, The Netherlands

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution. His written report accompanies the present lot.

Pijl: ‘A full generation older than Rembrandt, Adriaen van de Venne was among the most important Dutch masters of his day. He was a significant figure during the period sometimes referred to as the dawn of the Golden Age. He painted allegories, genre subjects and portraits, as well as a miniatures, book illustrations and designs for political satires.

Born in Delft, but according to the writer on the arts, Arnold Houbraken, he learned Latin in nearby Leiden. Initially, he studied with the unknown goldsmith and painter Simon de Valk, and afterwards he learned engraving and painting grisailles from the unknown Jeronimus van Diest. In 1614 he moved to Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, where he was influenced by the colors and minutiae of the works by Jan Brueghel the Elder and the satire of his father Pieter Brueghel the Elder. That year he painted the important Fishing for Souls (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), an ironic commentary on the Catholic and Protestant troubles during the Eighty Years War that split the border between the Northern from the Southern Netherlands. Van de Venne moved to The Hague and joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1625, taking the position of dean in 1637. He was one of the founding members of Confrerie Pictura, a group masters who worked on improving the independent status and social position of the artist in Dutch society by encouraging a more academic approach to the arts. He died in The Hague in 1662.

From 1620 onwards, Van de Venne made numerous grisailles featuring peasants, beggars, thieves and fools as illustrations of current proverbs and sayings. This widely dispersed work made him famous during his lifetime. Many of them contain a parole deriving from the moralist works of Jacob Cats. The lion share of these works are executed in the grisaille or brunaille technique, but some, such as the present work, are painted in a more colorful palette. The subject of the present work is written on the banderole: om de winst te doen (all about profit). It ridicules the greedy, money nuts, peddler couple, that carry their merchandise, such as hats and kitchen utensils, everywhere on the bodies. In her book on this type of paintings by Van de Venne, Annelies Plokker illustrates another work with the subject matter, but her no. 77 is of a different composition (see A. Plokker, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne [1589–1662]; de grisailles met spreukbanden, Leuven 1984). She mentions a further version of the subject exhibited in the winter of 1936/37, at the time in the collection of Jhr. J. A. G. Sandberg (Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Oude kunst uit Haagsch bezit, 1936, no. 203). The present painting is not identical with the Sandberg painting, since it was smaller (21.5 x 21.3 cm) and has a square format. The Sandberg version was sold in 28 October 1969 in Amsterdam at Mak van Waay, lot 733. The subject is a fine and typical example of Van de Venne’s eloquent sense of satire.’