Christoffel van der Laemen
Merry Company Making Music in an Interior
Oil on panel (parquetted). 52 x 69.5 cm.
Subsequently inscribed with conjoined “LD” monogram to the centre of the image to the left of the bed.
With a hand-written note to the back of the panel on the cradle “From the estate of Empress / Catherine II of Russia”. A Further hand-written labels mention a painting by Ludolf de Jongh in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg listed by Alfred von Wurzbach (Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, vol. 1, Vienna et. al., 1906, p. 762) and a now lost “Original metal plaque with catalogue no. 1733 with the note Dutch School in Russian".
The former attribution to Ludolf de Jongh is hardly convincing, especially as the painting fits seamlessly into the known oeuvre of the painter Christoffel van der Laemen in Antwerp. The majority of Van der Laemen's works comprise scenes of merry company such as this one. Box-like interiors with figures engaged in calm, composed activities such as conversation, dance, or music, are characteristic of his works.
Provenance
Possibly from the collection of Tsarina Catherine II of Russia in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. - Collection of Prof. Borgert, Bonn. - The Douteil Collection, Brazil (permanent loan to the Diözesanmuseum, Freising). – Lempertz auction 771, Cologne, 15.5.1999, lot 1078 (as Christoph Jacobsz. van der Lamen). - South German private collection.