Lot 2069 Dα

Born in Delft, Cornelis de Man's artistic development included brief sojourns in Paris and Lyon before turning to Italy, where he lived in Florence, Rome and Venice. In 1653 de Man returned to Delft, where he began a career as a successful painter. He is best known for his interiors of bourgeois families, clerics and scholars, although his observations from his travels often appeared in his work, particularly in his renderings of Italianate and naturalistic Dutch landscapes.


Like his contemporaries in Delft, Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch, de Man celebrated Dutch interiors - architecture, decoration and space - and the activities that took place there. In this case, a colourful party has gathered in a kitchen to eat oysters. The animated, joyful scene, depicted with great attention to detail, differs from de Man's usual more quiet and pared-down interiors. This intriguing work was certainly created in Delft, and is thought to date from the 1670s.