Lot 319: Pieter van der Werff , Kralingen-Ambacht 1665 - 1722 Rotterdam An Allegroy of Painting oil on panel

signed and dated lower right P. V. WErff fec./AN o 1716 oil on panel

measurements 17 3/4 in. by 13 1/2 in. alternate measurements 45 cm by 34.3 cm

J.B.P. Le Brun, Galérie des Peintres Flamands, Hollandais et Allemands, vol. II, 1792, p. 95, with engraving by P. Trière in reverse

C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis..., vol. X, 1928, p. 272, no. 140 (as by Adriaen van der Werff)

J. Becker, "Dieses emblematische Stück stellet die Erziehung der Jugend vor," in Oud Holland, vol. 90, 1976, pp. 91-2, note 35

W.L. van de Watering, Oude Meesters in de Verzameling Mr. Rabbani, Wassenaar 1981, no. 13

W.L. van de Watering, Old Masters from the Collection of Mahmoud S. Rabbani, Wassenaar 1983, pp. 96-100

Johan van Schuylenburch, Van Zanten, The Hague, September 20, 1735, lot 44
Prince de Carignan
Marquis de Brunoy
His sale, Joullain Fils, Paris, December 2, 1776, lot 42
Poullain (Receveur Général des Domaines du Roi)
His sale, J.B.P. Le Brun, Paris, March 15, 1780, lot 91, bought Le Brun
J.B.P. Le Brun, Paris
Destouches, Paris
His sale, J.B.P. Le Brun, Paris, March 21, 1794, lot 37
A.R. West, Alscot Park, Stratford-upon-Avon
Thence by inheritance to Captain James Alston-Roberts-West, Alscot Park, Stratford-upon-Avon
His sale, Christie's, London, June 26, 1964, lot 130 (as by Adriaen van der Werff), unsold
His sale, Christie's, London, November 29, 1974, lot 75 (as by Pieter van der Werff), bought Nijstad
Mahmoud S. Rabbani
His sale, Sotheby's, London, April 11, 1990, lot 111
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Private Collector"), Christie's, New York, May 15, 1996, lot 33

The composition of this painting is derived from a work by Adriaen van der Werff, Pieter's brother and teacher, entitled Pictura and the Liberal Arts doing honour to the Elector and the Electress Palatine. That celebrated picture was commissioned in Düsseldorf by the Elector Johann Wilhelm, who had appointed Adriaen court painter in 1696. Adriaen's picture was completed in 1716 and was added to a series of fifteen paintings of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which he had completed two years earlier. The paintings are now in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, at the Staatsgalerie, Schleissheim. Adriaen's smooth and highly finished style, strongly influenced by French taste, was greatly admired among the courts of Europe and he enjoyed considerable prestige. His brother, Pieter, shared his workshop and, though a less innovative artist, he developed an equally polished style, as evident in the present painting, which dates from the same year as Adriaen's prototype. Here Pieter has incorporated the figures of Pictura and the two putti from Adriaen's composition and has added two antique busts, an artist's palette, brushes and a maulstick. The painting within the painting, which depicts a Self-portrait in Adriaen's picture, has been replaced with one showing Samson and Delilah. The present painting was paired with a scene of Susanna and the Elders at the time of the Schuylenburch sale in 1735 and also at the Poullain sale in 1780 (see Provenance). It was engraved by P. Trière as after a picture by Pieter van der Werff in 1792, when in the collection of the leading French dealer and connoisseur, Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun. What is probably another version of the picture, and of the same size, is recorded at the Zwieten sale, The Hague, Bicker, April 12, 1741 (see G. Hoet, Naamlyst..., vol. 2, 1752, p. 17, no. 77).