Lot 44: Pieter de Putter , The Hague before 1600 - 1659 Beverwijk A fisherman holding a pike, with bream, perch and other freshwater fish on a table; A fisherwoman smoking fish, with a pike, bream and other freshwater fish on a table oil on panel

a pair, both signed lower centre: DP (in compendium) VT R f oil on panel Quantity: 2

measurements note each: 106.5 by 67.5 cm.

L.M. Helmus (ed.), Fish, Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish masters 1550 - 1700, Utrecht 2004, pp. 246-7, reproduced p. 246.

With J. Singer, London, by 1939;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 12 April 1940;
Probably sale S.H..., Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 21 May 1951, lot 76;
With L. van Amerongen, Breda, by 1964;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 12/13 November 1991, lot 200;
Anonymous sale, The Hague, Venduehuis, 16-18 November 1993, lot 207 & lot 208;
Anonymous sale, London, Philips, 19 April 1994, lot 95.

OTHER PROPERTIES
Pieter de Putter belongs to the earliest generation of fish-still life painters. He painted freshwater fish almost exclusively, but, as here, he also produced several works with large scale figures in the characteristic garb of fisherfolk. All other known examples of these figural types depict men holding a pike, standing behind a table with an extensive fish still life, such as the one sold, London, Christie's, 12 December 1986, lot 39. In the present works attention is mostly drawn to the portrait-like studies of the fisherman and the fisherwoman, but the fish themselves, in their typically cool and brownish tones, are entirely in keeping with De Putter's individual fish still lifes.