Lot 25: Jean-Baptiste de Saive I (Namur c. 1540-1624 Mechlin) and Jean-Baptiste de Saive II (Mechlin 1597-after 1641)

Jean-Baptiste de Saive I (Namur c. 1540-1624 Mechlin) and Jean-Baptiste de Saive II (Mechlin 1597-after 1641)
A town market, with fruit, vegetable and poultry stalls
indistinctly signed ':JOAN · DE NA.R PIX.T' (lower left, along the edge of the table)
oil on canvas
68 5/8 x 107 in. (174.4 x 271.9 cm.)

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
We are grateful to Fred Meijer, of the RKD, The Hague, for confirming the attribution, noting that it is virtually impossible to distinguish the hand of the father from that of the son. They ran a thriving workshop in Mechlin, with talented pupils, including Balthasar Huys (active 1612-1652 Rotterdam), who also collaborated on their larger compositions.

Signed works by the Saives are extremely rare. The signature in the present picture is placed identically (along the edge of the table) to that in a picture sold in these rooms, 7 July 2000, lot 36, for £333,750 (see also E.A. Honig, Painting and the Market in Early Modern Antwerp, New Haven, 1998, p. 126, fig. 49). Judging by the configuration of the signature, the present picture was commissioned for the Spanish market, possibly while Saive the Elder was court painter in Brussels.