Lot 225: Matthijs Naiveu , Leiden bapt 1647 - 1726 Amsterdam A sumptuous interior with an elegantly dressed gentleman paying court to a lady oil on canvas

signed in the centre over the mantlepiece: Naiveu oil on canvas

measurements note 54.7 by 64.9 cm.; 21 1/2 by 25 1/2 in.

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, 14 October 2006 - 21 January 2007; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, 18 February - 27 May 2007; Kassel, Museumslandschaft Hessen, 21 June - 30 September 2007; Vom Adel der Malerei: Holland um 1700 (The Aristocratic Art of Painting: Holland about 1700), no. 57.

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 28 October 1987, lot 113;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 13 December 2000, lot 46.

This richly decorated interior, in which the characters appear to be enacting a scene from a play, is perhaps Naiveu's most successful work. With the daring repoussoir device of the ebony chair, which perpetuates the sense of depth, together with the sumptuous decoration not only of the room itself but of the characters' clothing, and the compelling interaction between the figures, Naiveu achieves an entirely individual effect which could never be mistaken for the work of another.

Naiveu in fact trained under Gerrit Dou in Leiden as his apprentice, having begun his career in the studio of Abraham Toorenvliet. He entered the guild of St Luke in 1671, and was dean in 1677 and 1678. Naiveu's earliest works, depicting typical Dutch genre subjects such as children blowing bubbles or market vendors, are painted and conceived very much in the manner of his master Dou and that of some of his fellow students such as Frans van Mieris the Elder. From the 1670s onwards however, he distanced himself from the example of his master, lending his works a greater extravagance and flourish that is altogether different from Dou's more simplistic conceptions. Works such as the present lot are strikingly original and do not seem to be born of any specific inspiration; they are unique to this most individual of painters.