Quiringh Gerritz van Brekelenkam
Zwammerdam (?) near Leiden circa 1623 – Leiden 1669 (?) or after

A Housewife and Maid with a Fish
signed and dated Q. Breklenkam 1664 in the lower right

oil on panel

17 5/8 × 15 1/3 inches (44.6 × 38.9 cm.)

PROVENANCE:
D.N. Teengs sale, Monnickendam, September 23, 1824, lot 7; Right Hon. Viscount D’Abernon, Esher Place, Esher, England; Schieffer Gallery, Amsterdam, 1928, from whom purchased by; Alfred Cohen, Amsterdam, 1931, who consigned it to; Firma D. Katz, Dieren, November, 1941; Looted by the Nazi authorities, after November, 1941; In the custody of the Dutch Government ; Restituted to the heirs of Alfred Cohen, New York, by 1954, and thus by descent in the family until the present time

LITERATURE

Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, Davaco, Doornspijk, 1992, pp. 59, 76,130, no. 176

Although very little is known about the life of Quiringh van Brekelenkam it is likely that he received his artistic training in Leiden. In 1648 he joined the newly founded Guild of St. Luke in Leiden. It is also from this year that his earliest dated work is known, Domestic Cares in the Stedelijk Museum, Leiden. His career spanned two decades from 1648-1668, and with the exception of a few still lifes and portraits, Brekelenkam devoted himself to genre.¹ Lasius in her monograph records a total of 238 accepted works.

During the first decade of his career the artist painted simple domestic scenes as well as hermits. These works reflect his close ties to the Leiden school of fijnschilders, a group of artists centered around Gerrit Dou, but as early as the 1650s Brekelenkam would begin to formulate a more individualized style, one which would reflect the influence of Gabriel Metsu. From 1653-1664 the majority of his paintings depict the workshops and stalls of different crafts and tradesmen, such as the shoemaker, barber-surgeon, apothecary, tailor, coppersmith, lace-maker, fruit-seller, shrimp-seller and vegetable seller. No other contemporary Dutch artist would represent these subjects as often. In the 1660s his works would also include the newly fashionable conversation pieces in elegant interiors and within this group depictions of housewives with maids would dominate. During this period his palette would brighten and become more luminous, reflecting the influences of Jan Steen, Gerard ter Borch, Pieter de Hooch and Jacob Ochtervelt. By this point he had also developed a distinctive hand characterized by broad fluid brush strokes, thinly applied paint, carefully crafted figures and objects with slightly blurred faces and contours, clothing consisting of a few well modeled folds, all covered in a fine glaze. ²

Brekelenkam and his fellow artists rarely worked for individual patrons but instead in an open market whose main outlets consisted of auctions and dealers. As competition was fierce, artists tried to stand out by specializing in certain subjects or by the introduction of original themes, which would then be associated exclusively with their name. It is possible that Brekelenkam was the first artist to portray the general subject of this panel, a housewife examining goods purchased by a maid.³ Images of housewives supervising their maids would become the most popular domestic theme in seventeenth century Dutch genre painting.⁴ Ochtervelt and De Hooch both painted such scenes, but it is unclear who did so first. ⁵

Lasius considers Brekelenkam’s finest works to date from 1660-1664. She lists six known versions of a Housewife and Maid with Fish, all believed to have been executed circa 1663-1664.⁶ In this panel the mistress of the house, ⁷seated in a well-appointed room, is resplendent in gold satin dress, ermine trimmed jacket and clustered pearl earrings; a striking contrast to the maid’s brown, white and red dress whose chief ornaments are the household implements that hang from her waist. The mistress engaged with her toilet has been interrupted by the maid in order to inspect a fish. Contemporary domestic conduct books, such as Jacob Cats’ Houwelyck (Marriage) of which there were at least 50,000 copies in circulation by the middle of the seventeenth century, detailed at great lengths the housewife’s obligation to oversee her servants. By doing so both mistress and maid fulfill their expected roles as supervisor and subordinate, the painting’s underlying message is one of tacit approval as well as a nod to worldly order.⁸

¹ Lasius, op. cit., pp. 7-8, 15, 69.

² Ibid, pp. 69, 148.

³ Ibid, pp. 37, 70-71.

⁴ Wayne E. Frantis, Paragons of Virtue, Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 100.

⁵ Lasius, op. cit., p. 37.

⁶ Lasius has given this painting no. 176 an incorrect date of 1661 (?) instead of its actual date of 1664.

⁷ The image of the young housewife is repeated frequently in paintings of the 1660s, distinctive due to her shoulder-length blond curly hair and high forehead, see Lasius, p. 37.

⁸ Frantis, op. cit., pp. 5-6, 100-101.

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