Pieter de Bloot
Peasants Drinking and Smoking in an Interior
Oil on panel. 33 x 41.5 cm (oval).
Signed and dated lower right: P De Bloot 1655 [1635?].
This interior scene by Pieter de Bloot once belonged to the important paintings collection of the Berlin based collector Alexis Schönlank, which was auctioned by Lempertz in Cologne in 1896. His collection also included works by Herri met de Bles (lot 13, heute Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels), Paulus Lesire (lot 18, now Kunstmuseum Basel), The Master of the Prodigal Son (lot 25, now Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen), and Lucas Cranach (lot 34, now Philadelphia Museum of Art, and lot 35, now Art Institute, Chicago).
Provenance
The Alexis Schönlank collection, Berlin. - His sale, J. M. Heberle (H. Lempertz’ Söhne), Cologne, 28.-29.4.1896, lot 16. - Auctioned by Koller, Zürich, 22.5.1973, lot 2783. - Auctioned by Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, 7.5.1974, lot 36. - Auctioned by Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 17.11.1993, lot 22. - Italian private collection.