Lot 79: Louis de Moni , Breda 1698 - 1771 Leiden The doctor's visit oil on panel

signed lower right: L de Moni and dated and inscribed on the letter : A o 1730 / 's Gravenhage oil on panel

measurements note 34.5 by 25.2 cm.

Anonymous sale, Munich, Weinmüller, 15 March 1961, lot 859;
Anonymous sale, Munich, Weinmüller, 6 December 1961, lot 974.

THE PROPERTY OF A GERMAN PRIVATE COLLECTOR
This charming scene of a doctor taking a woman's pulse fits well into Louis de Moni's oeuvre, which primarily consists of genre-pieces strongly reminiscent of 17th Century genre painting from Leiden. It is clear that De Moni was familiar with Gerard Dou's treatment of the subject, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 592). The theme of the doctor inspecting a young woman's urine sample, traditionally indicating the woman's lovesickness or pregnancy, was popularized by Dou in the 17υth Century. In this painting, Dou's influence is not only discernible in the placement of the figures within a stone niche, which had become an almost standard feature within genre-pieces well into the 19υth Century, but also in several specific motifs such as the Turkish carpet, the drawn-back curtain and the Duquesnoy relief. Since the 1650s this relief, placed below the ledge of the window, became increasingly popular amongst genre painters and was probably read as a metaphor of the illusion of painting.υ1

1. For further reading on the Duquesnoy relief, see P. Hecht, 'Art beats nature, and painting does so best of all: the paragone competition in Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcke', Simiolus, vol. 29, no. 3/4, 2002, pp. 184-201.