Lot 41: Jan Asselijn (Dieppe circa 1610-1652 Amsterdam) Peasants merrymaking among ruins, an Italianate landscape beyond

Jan Asselijn
(Dieppe circa 1610-1652 Amsterdam)
Peasants merrymaking among ruins, an Italianate landscape beyond signed with monogram 'JA' (lower right)oil on canvas61.2 x 50.8cm (24 1/8 x 20in).

Provenance: Sale, Bonhams, London, 14 December 1978, lot 30With Rafael Valls, London, 1979 Private Collection, Germany, 1986 (according to literature)Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2001, lot 108ExhibitedCologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, I Bamboccianti. Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, 28 August- 17 November 1991, cat. no. 1.1Utrecht, Centraal Museum, I Bamboccianti. Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, 6 December 1991 - 9 February 1992, cat. no. 1.1LiteratureWeltkunst, vol. 49, no. 13, 1 July 1979, p. 1630A-C. Steland-Stief, in D. Levine & E. Mai (ed.), I Bamboccianti. Niederländische Malerrebellen im Rom des Barock, exh. cat. 1991, pp. 114-116, cat. no.1.1, ill., p.115Anne-Charlotte Steland-Stief suggests that the present work dates from Asselijn's early Italian period, circa 1639-40 (see Literature). During this period Asselijn was influenced by a group of Dutch Italian artists, including Pieter van Laer, known collectively as the Bamboccianti.The motif of peasants and animals in Roman ruins was a popular subject for Asselijn, and one that he repeated throughout his Italian period and continued to do so after his return to The Netherlands. A similar work, also dated to Asselijn's early period in Rome, is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (inv. no. 1917.1).