Lot 43: JAN VAN PEE

JAN VAN PEE AMSTERDAM BEFORE 1640 - 1710 ANTWERP A FISHWIFE AND BOY WITH THEIR CATCH oil on canvas 153.5 by 116.5 cm.

Probably Ludovicus Antonius de Vigne (b. 1756);
François de Vigne, Director of the Conservatoire de Musique, Ghent;
Thence by descent until recently.

Formerly thought to be from the school of Frans Hals, this picture was first recognised as a work of Jan van Pee by Willem van de Watering in 1980.

Van Pee (or Peenen) was probably trained in Amsterdam, and certainly worked there until 1656. He is recorded in the following year in Leiden, and later on he moved to Antwerp, where he died in 1710. The appearance of this picture enabled Van de Watering to identify another very similar picture by Van Pee: a previously anonymous depiction of a kitchen interior with a woman mixing pancake batter, in the town hall in Nijmegen, which includes the same youth, also pointing with his left hand.υ1 A large scale (215 by 196 cm.) painting signed by Van Pee, also depicting pancake-making is in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (inv. no. 468).

Although there is little to indicate when in his career Van Pee might have painted these works, they reveal a highly distinctive, painterly hand that is reminiscent of the early, large scale work of Gabriel Metsu.

1. See J.Q. van Regteren Altena, 'Jan van den Bergh', in Oud Holland, vol. LXXXVI, 1961, reproduced p. 75, fig 9 (as Anonymous).