Lot 44: Hubert van Ravesteyn , Dordrecht 1638 - 1691 A barn interior with a slaughtered pig, a young boy playing with a pig's bladder, sheep, a cockerel and a dog, vegetables on a wooden ledge, a maid milking cows, a view of Dordrecht beyond oil on panel

signed in monogram lower left: HR .(in ligature) oil on panel

measurements note 43.8 by 59.2 cm.

U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler..., vol. XXVIII, Leipzig 1934, p. 53.

Anonymous sale, Munich, Galerie Helbing, 1903, lot 26 (as by H.R. Sorgh);
Anonymous sale, Munich, Galerie Helbing, 8 March 1911, lot 124 (as by Hubert van Ravensteyn).

THE PROPERTY OF A GERMAN LADY
Although the Dordrecht artist Van Ravesteyn is mostly known for his somewhat naïve vegetable and toebackje still lifes, his barn interiors in particular, like this work, were described by Arnold Houbraken in his Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en schilderessen of 1721: 'Deze schilderde gemeenlyk schaapstalletjes, en een boeremeit die een ketel of iets anders staat te schuuren, of met een boereknaap te praten; of ook wel de vertooning van den slagttyd, door een verken dat op de leer hangt, en jongens die met de blaas spelen.'υ1 Several other barn interiors are known, at least three others with this particular view of Dordrecht, all of which are very similar in compostion. Van Ravesteyn also repeatedly used specific pictorial motifs. Some of the motifs in this painting, e.g. the slaughtered pig, the boy with the pig's bladder and the cabbages on the wooden bench, can be seen in various combinations in other barn interiors by Van Ravesteyn, such as the one in the Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht (inv. no. DM/907/90) and another which was offered Amsterdam, Glerum, 13 November 1995, lot 26. 1. 'He usually painted sheep folds, with a farm maid sanding a kettle or similar object, or chatting with a farmhand; or, sometimes, a picture of the slaughtering season with a pig hanging on the ladder and boys playing with a pig's bladder.' A. Houbraken, Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en schilderessen, Amsterdam 1721, vol. III, p. 169.