Attribution: Bray, Salomon de (Amsterdam, 1597 - Amsterdam, May 11, 1664) (Painter)
Previous attribution: Grebber, Pieter Fransz de (Haarlem, 1600 - Haarlem, 1653) (Painter)
Previous attribution: Jordaens, Jacob (Antwerp, May 19, 1593 - Antwerp, October 18, 1678) (Painter)
Young farmer
Young farmer
Production: Around 1635
Area: Painting
Technique(s): Wood (oil paint)
Dimensions : H. 50.5 cm ; W. 65.4 cm
Inventory no.: PE.1406.A
Photo credit(s) :
Camus, Christophe
Cartel
Perhaps trained under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Salomon de Bray settled in Haarlem at an early date, where he is attested as early as 1615. His realistic art, combining subtle shades of color with the chiaroscuro of the Utrecht Caravaggists, made him one of the leading figures in Haarlem painting in the first half of the century. A multi-faceted artist, he combined painting, architecture and urban planning, poetry and rhetoric.
This young peasant girl belongs to his rich production of isolated figures, usually against a neutral background and lit from the left, influenced by the lessons of his contemporary Frans Hals. Portrayed in bust form, turning a curious gaze towards the viewer, the young girl is dressed in an elegant Italian-style costume, in which the artist took pleasure in meticulously describing the patterns of the bodice and the pleating of the shirt. The Caravaggio-inspired chiaroscuro is tempered by the antique varnish enveloping the figure in a warm light. The artist combines the seductiveness of youth and rural innocence with the uncompromising depiction of a working-class model, with ungraceful features, yellow teeth and hair around the forehead. Charles Sterling, who is credited with attributing the painting to Salomon de Bray, finds in the peasant woman's gaze an expression "at once self-conscious and evincing interest", which "naturally exposes the ugliness of her bony face, chapped lips and robust hands". If genre figures are commonplace in Salomon de Bray's work, this one of Orléans achieves an unequalled degree of plebeian realism and touching naiveté.
Provenance
Purchased by the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans from Madame Pillon, a Bordeaux art dealer, 1907.
School
Hollande
Location
Museum of Fine Arts
2nd floor
Room: The Golden Age in Northern Schools