Thursday 24 September 2015

Old Couple is Flemish or Dutch, not German

Italian auction house Boetto sells on 28 September 2015 a pair of paintings, "German School, 17th century, People" (in the sense of "Common People"). The two small panels (29 by 37 cm) are estimated together at 2,000 to 2,300 Euro.

The works seem to be Flemish or Dutch, not German, as the inscriptions on it are in (old) Dutch.

The man has the inscription "Wel heijle wat sout u letten / dat ick u eens brocht om te netten". The meaning isn't completely clear to me, "Well (heijle) what would stop you / that I brought you to get wet".  It seems to be, combined with the image, something like "why wouldn't we go for a drink"?

The woman bears the text: "Handen rept u ras / ghij en quaempt noijt beter te pas", or "Hands be swift / you never came in more handy".

It's a moralising but light-hearted pair of works, quite old-fashioned already at the time they were made. They seem like weak echos of the work of someone like David Ryckaert the Younger or Mattheus van Helmont (pictured), and should be dated in the late 17th or even the 18th century. They are interesting, but not good enough and I can't see them making the estimated price.

UPDATE: not sold, as expected.

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