Tuesday, 23 May 2017

"Monogrammed DRS" is a fake David Ryckaert

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 14 June 2017 a "17th century monogrammed D.R.S" tavern scene, estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 Euro.

I believe it is not "D.R.S." but "D.R.f." (with lowercase f) for David Ryckaert fecit ("made"). David Ryckaert III (1612 - 1661) is known for these kind of scenes in the vein of Brouwer and Teniers.

Having identified the supposed artist is good, but sadly I'm fairly certain that this one can't be an original Ryckaert or even a 17th century work.

The "stoof" shown on the right is something that as far as I know never appeared on 17th century paintings (and certainly not in a tavern), and only became available around 1800. The fake is probably at least 100 years later, as people from 1800 or thereabouts would still know that this kind of heating was "new", while 100 years later it was already old-fashioned enough to be confused with much older heating systems.

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