Lot 308: ANDRIES BOTH UTRECHT CIRCA 1612/13 - 1642 VENICE

traces of a signature lower centre on the table: A..

oil on panel

48.6 by 59.4 cm.

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 20 May 1995, lot 814, where bought by Bernhard Graf von Galen.

After having travelled with his brother Jan Both through France, Andries and Jan Both both arrived in Italy. In 1635 he is recorded in Rome, where he is regarded as one of the most important Bamboccianti of his time, according to his contemporaries such as Jan Miel and Michelangelo Cerquozzi. He died in 1642 at a young age, when he drowned in a Venetian canal.

The present work seems to have been painted when he still was in Holland, before 1633. The perspective of the village scene beyond and the colouring of the figures reminds of the works of his fellow-citizen Joost Cornelis Droochsloot.