Private Meal
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 34 x 26 cm h x w x d: Ram 53 x 45 x 7 cm
Inventory numberNM 496
Other titlesTitle (sv): Måltid på tu man hand Title (en): Private Meal
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 112: Technical notes: The support consists of a single piece of medium-coarse plain-weave fabric which is identical with the canvas of no. 113. The two canvases may perhaps have been cut from the same bolt. The painting has been marouflaged to a piece of fibreboard and the verso covered with a piece of fabric. All the edges have been trimmed to fit the four sides of the current nonoriginal stretcher. Vertical broad cusping can be seen over the entire painting and seem to correspond to those in no. 113. The whiteish ground is applied evenly and thickly and covers the texture the support. The brown imprimatura has been applied thinly and is semi-transparent as is in no. 113. The paint surface is simply applied and consists mainly of a thin, opaque layer. Between the figures in the foreground and background there are areas in which the ground is visible, which indicates that the figures have been outlined. There are a few areas with highlights in impasto in white. The painting is executed delicately and with many details and the palette and brushwork is identical with no. 113. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1947 and 1977. provenance: Johan Gabriel Stenbock 1705, Stockholm; Christina Beata Lillie, 1705; Erik Sparre af Sundby; Ulrika Lovisa Sparre af Sundby 1727; Carl Gustaf Tessin 1735; Carl Gustaf Tessin 1739; Tessin−Fredrik I−Lovisa Ulrika 1749; Lovisa Ulrika 1760, Drh. no. 24; KM 1795, no. 228; KM 1816, no. 157; KM 1865, no. 157. exhibited: Stockholm 2000, no. 117. bibliography: Sander I, p. 107, no. 24; Göthe 1887, p. 132; Göthe 1893, pp. 165–166; NM Cat. 1958, p. 106; NM Cat. 1990, p. 191. This genre painting entitled Private Meal is signed clearly under the tabletop in the bottom left and has been painted on simple, medium-coarse plain-weave fabric similar to that of no. 113. The latter is a companion piece and was probably painted on fabric from the same bolt. Both paintings have been cropped and display resemblances in their colour surfaces and the underlying whiteish ground and imprimatura in a shade of brown. Several versions of the two paintings are known, for instance in the collections of the Brun - swick museum of art, where there are two works with similar motifs (cat. nos. 639, 640), in the collections at Widerhofer, where there is a suite of works by Jan Baptist Lambrechts that resemble the present painting as well as nos. 113–115 as well as in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille where the versions of motifs of this work and its companion piece can also be found. Lambrechts’ inn scenes depict a well-dressed man and woman sitting at a table, both with chalk pipes in their hands, and in the background two women and a man with a hat, all three dressed in simpler garb and who seem to be peasants. The painting is characterised by its delicate and detailed execution and its individual details, among them the figures, the jug on the table and the plate. The significance of the motif could also be linked to its companion piece which could be seen as a development of the narrative content. It depicts a new couple in an inn interior with peasants in the background. An item of clothing hanging over the edge of the wooden wall of an adjacent room suggests that the inn provides not only food and drink but also erotic interludes. A version of this motif was sold at Christie’s in London in the spring of 2006.1 KS 1 See Christie’s Auction, London, 14−23 February 2006, lot 1913. [End]
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TechniquePainting
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