Lot 1537 Dα

Adriaen van de Venne was a versatile artist who was active as a poet, illustrator and painter. He learnt the method of grisaille painting from his teacher Hieronymus van Diest and continued to use the technique successfully throughout his career. Active in Middelburg and later in The Hague, van de Venne painted mythological scenes and landscapes in the tradition of Jan Brueghel I. However, he was most well-known for the illustrations that adorned the pages of moralising works such as those of Jacob Cats or Johan de Brune.
This humorous monochromatic depiction of a vagrant family is a characteristic example of his style. This unusual motif is based on a long Dutch tradition of depicting both the lower strata of society and moralising proverbs. Following his move to The Hague in 1625, Venne developed a repertoire of comical and ironic depictions of the lives of simple people and peasant life using his typical en grisaille or en brunaille palette.
Almost all of these scenes feature a contemporary proverb or saying. In this work, an explanation is included in a scroll at the base of the panel. The title “Noot breeckt wet” (necessity breaks the law) can be interpreted as a commentary on the scene. In difficult circumstances, usual rules are broken: The ragged couple use items from their home as clothing and hats, the mother is shown feeding her child whilst walking and lets the other eat directly from the pot. Another ironic interpretation of the saying is provided by a scene in the background of the work in which we see a man uninhibitedly opening his bowels over the side of a boat - “higher necessity” also leads to rules being broken. Venne included the old saying “noot breeckt wet” in his book “Sinne-vonck op den Hollandschen Turf”, an ironic homage to the 1634 peat market in The Hague.
There is at least one further version of this previously unpublished painting, the whereabouts of which is currently unknown. This signed work dated 1633 was published by Annelies Plokker (see Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, de grisailles met spreukbanden, Leuven/Amersfoort 1984, no. 75, p. 190-191) and most likely originates from the Kohen collection (see the auction catalogue of Dorotheum, Vienna, 7th May 1923, lot 40a). This depiction, which is also recorded in a photograph in the archive of the RKD, varies in several details, most notably in the man's right glove and the opening of the pot in the woman's hand. Mag. Christina Felzmann carried out an extensive research report on the provenance of the present work (Vienna, 15th September 2021), which can be viewed upon request.