Lot 48: Pieter Pietersz. Vromans (1577-1654)

The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist oil on panel 58.6 x 93.3 cm PROVENANCE Anon. Sale, Sotheby's, London, 27 July 1966, lot 86, as 'C. van Renesse'. EXHIBITION Leyden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Rondom Rembrandt, 1968, no.56, ill., as indistinctly signed (?). NOTES The attribution is based on comparison, particularly with the staffage, with the eponymous, signed painting by Vromans, recorded as in the J.O. Kronig (?) collection, The Hague (photograph in the RKD). Similar, too, are The Baptism of the Eunuch in the Landesmuseum, Mnster and The Adoration of the Magi in the Suermondt Museum, Aachen. Both the latter pictures have in the past been wrongly attributed to Jacob Willemsz. de Wet, with whose work Vromans' has often been confused. Although close in style, Vromans' work differs from that of De Wet in the influence of Vromans' fellow-citizen Leonaert Bramer. Little else is known of his career: from a large family of artists, he is recorded as a member of the Delft Guild of Saint Luke in 1635. The subject is taken from John I:19-28.