Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 181:

Technical notes: The support consists of a single
piece of even, loosely woven plain weave fabric. Fragments
of the tacking edges are present on the right and
left sides as well as along the top, where fragments of the
ground can be seen. The tacking edges have been partially
trimmed, but not enough to affect the painting. Faint
cusping can be seen on the left and right edges. The
painting is in its original format. It has been lined and
mounted on a non-original stretcher. The preparation
consists of a thickly and evenly applied whiteish ground,
probably chalk ground, that completely covers the structure
of the fabric and extends from edge to edge. There
is no visible imprimatura. The paint has been applied
thinly in one or more layers with extensive use of impasto
in the modelling of the dwarf’s cloak, for instance, the
dog the calabash and the thistle. The flesh tones have
been applied opaquely and with some degree of impasto.
The paint layer is dry and the hair and flesh colours
applied elaborately. The sky consists partly of an opaque
layer of blue while the light blue and pink sections are
thinly applied or semi-transparent. The ground is partly
visible in these areas. The dwarf has been painted separately
before the foreground and background were filled
in. The dwarf’s staff has been painted over the dog in the
foreground and also over the blue sky but it does not
continue past the upper tacking edge. There is greyishbluish
underpainting under the calabash and brownish
underpainting under the girl’s face. Her skirt has a
brownish underpaint, brown glazing with blue in the
highlights, brownish-black pigment in the shadows
which are also glazed in brown. Several of the plants in
the right corner have been painted over the girl’s apron.
There is dark, almost black underpainting beneath the
fruit the girl is holding in her hand and this is visible in
the cracks. The vegetation by the girl’s right shoulder
was painted after the figure had been completed. There
is some overlap of the contours in the foreground and
background. The sky and the landscape have been painted
using broad brushstrokes. The branches and foliage on the
left and right have been painted over the sky in the background.
There is no underpainting beneath the foreground
or background or the garments. Pentimenti have
been made to the positions of the branches. An area on the
left under the branches of the tree was overpainted before
the paint had dried. Along all four sides the image is
framed by a black line that has been painted about 0.5–1
cm from the edge of the strainer.

Provenance: Donated by Bengt Rapp in 1960.

Exhibited: Stockholm 2010, no. 81.

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1958, supplement 1972, p. 5;
Statens konstsamlingars tillväxt och förvaltning 1960
[Growth and management of the national art collections,
1960], no. 85, p. 33; NM Cat. 1990, p. 336.

This monumental painting signed by Peter Snijers
depicts a dwarf full-length in the centre of the image
with his body half turned towards us and his head facing
us. He is wearing a black skullcap and has a long
brown beard. His skin is pink and his eyes greyishgreen
with a penetrating gaze. His grey knee-length
cloak is ragged and under it he is wearing brown hose
and hefty buckled shoes. In his right hand he is holding
a black, triangular hat and in his left he has a long,
coarse staff. An orange-coloured vessel is hanging
from a leather strap on his right and on his left a flat
metal vessel from a strap around his neck. A dog is
lying on the ground to the left of the dwarf. On the
other side of the dwarf a small girl is standing with a
red apple and some slices of bread in her hands. The
girl is looking at the dwarf and her face is partly shadowed.
Some pink accents have been placed on her lips
and right cheek. The girl is wearing a coarse, greybrown
dress with a blue apron and has a blue huckle
on her head. The landscape in the foreground and
middle ground is mainly green and yellowish green
and the background fades into paler blue, violet, grey
and pink tones. On the right a river is depicted with
fortified buildings on its bank against a background of
bluish hills. The sky is covered by a thin layer of cloud.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a genre painting
signed by Peter Snijers that displays stylistic
resemblances to the Nationalmuseum’s work.1
The rendering of the figures recalls the painting in the
Nationalmuseum as does the interest in specific
details: a thistle and the vegetation in the work in the
Nationalmuseum and in the Rijksmuseum’s painting a
basket and an arrangement of vegetables. Similarities
in the rendering of the figures can also be seen in a
painting by Peter Snijers of the Prodigal Son sold at
Sotheby’s in 1996.2

The iconography of the Nationalmuseum’s painting
is interesting and can be linked to a contemporary and
somewhat earlier tradition of dwarf portraits of which
those by Diego Velázquez of the dwarves at the Spanish
court are the best known. In this painting owned
by the Nationalmuseum the artist has portrayed the
impoverished dwarf with insight and respect. He is
rendered in a monumental portrait alongside a penniless
girl in simple, ragged clothes. The dog next to
him, like the thistle, the landscape and the vessels carried
by the dwarf have been depicted meticulously. All
three seem to be on the road, perhaps on their way to
entertain an audience. At the time the work was produced
there was great interest in the anomalous,
which is why dwarves were a popular feature in both
popular drama and life at the princely courts.
KS

1 The Woman Peddler, oil on canvas, 59 x 44 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
inv. no. A 726.
2 The Prodigal Son, Sotheby’s, London, 2 April 1996, lot 69. See also the
rendering of the figures in the painting Allegory of the Month of December,
Sotheby’s, London, 17 November 1982, lot 9. [End]

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