Lot 134: PIETER JACOBSZ. DUYFHUYSEN

PIETER JACOBSZ. DUYFHUYSEN ROTTERDAM 1608 - 1677 A GROUP OF SOLDIERS RESTING BESIDE CLASSICAL REMAINS IN A LANDSCAPE signed lower centre: P.Colinchoviu oil on panel 37.8 by 48.8 cm.; 14 7/8 by 19 1/4 in.

The Archduchess Katalin of Austria and Bohemia (1909-2000);
By descent until sold, London, Sotheby's, 10 April 2003, lot 41A, where bought by the present owner.

This is, as Willem van der Watering and Fred G. Meijer confirmed at the time of the 2003 sale, an early work by the Rotterdam genre painter Duyfhuijsen, dating from circa 1630. It is the only known work that he signed using the Latinized form of his surname, meaning `dovecote', and is markedly different from his mature works, for the most part peasant interiors with maids engaged in domestic chores. His oeuvre was reconstructed by W.L. van der Watering `Pieter Duyfhuijsen (1608-1677): een reconstructie van het oeuvre van een vergeten Rotterdamse schilder van boereninterieurs', in Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbestiz, 1987, pp. 357-383.