Lot 52: WILLEM KALF

A BARN INTERIOR WITH PUMPKINS AND OTHER VEGETABLES, PEWTER PLATES AND A COPPER BOWL NEXT TO A BARREL, TWO PEASANTS IN THE BACKGROUND

32 by 25.5 cm.

oil on panel

Berlin, Königliche Academie der Kunste, Werke alter Kunst aus dem Privatbesitz von Mitgliedern des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins, May - June 1914, no. 75 or 76 (one of a pair of paintings);
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 24 January-30 March 1970, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, 24 April-7 June 1970, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, no. 26.

H. Vey, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, exhibition catalogue, Cologne 1970, (unpaginated), cat. no. 26, reproduced;
L.Grisebach, Willem Kalf (1619-1693), Berlin 1974, p. 216, no. 17, reproduced fig. 20;
F.G. Meijer, 'Addenda en corrigenda op Lucius Grisebachs catalogus van de werken van Willem Kalf', in Willem Kalf 1619-1693, exhibition catalogue, Berlin 2006, p. 161, no A3, reproduced p. 160.

Nogaret, sale Paris, 2-5 June 1780, no. 42, for 280 Francs to Lebrun;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Lebrun and Dufresne, 11-16 December 1780, no.92;
With Julius Böhler, Munich, 1912, with a pendant (according to Hofstede de Groot);
Dr. Alexander Frey, Berlin, with pendant;
With Frederick Mont, New York, 1949;
Private Collection, the Netherlands(?);
Dr. Herbert Girardet, Kettwig, by 1970;
Thence by descent.

Hofstede de Groot saw this picture and a pendant with Julius Böhler in Munich in 1912, and it was exhibited with its pendant in 1914. The putative pendant, possibly another work of Kalf of similar size and date rather than one of a true pair, is probably a work in the Landesmuseum, Bonn (inv. nos. 35,539). As Grisebach noted, it was recorded as signed, but when he saw it in the original in 1968, the signature had disappeared.