Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/160

 136 JAN STEEN SECT. the other side of the table, and holds a child. Near her is an old man in a basket chair j behind him stands a boy with his back to the window. A wag on the other side rattles a wooden spoon on a gridiron. In the back- ground stands another person, convulsed with laughter. " This excellent picture abounds in the genuine spirit of the master " (Sm.). Signed in full on the chimney-piece to the right ; canvas, 27 inches by 40 inches. Described by Waagen (ii. 284). Exhibited in Leeds, 1868, No. 710. Sab. Duke of Bedford, London, 1827 (126). In the collection of John Fulton, 1833 (Sm.). Sale, E. W. Lake, London, 1845 (210, Norton). In the collection of H. F. Holt, London, 1868. Sale. John W. Wilson, Paris, March 14, 1881. 509. The Twelfth Night Feast. 22 inches by 18 inches. Sale, Nieuwenhuys, London, 1886 (.215 : 53., Salting). 510. ST. NICHOLAS'S DAY. Sm. 15 ; W. 6. On the right sits the mother, seen in profile to the left. She stretches out her hands to a little girl who will not give up the toy which she has received. Near her is a boy, who smilingly points to his elder brother. This elder boy stands on the left, crying, because he has only received a rod stuck in a shoe which his sister holds up to him. At the back the grandmother with a smiling face stands at the door and beckons to him. The father looks on, laughing. Beside the hearth to the right are a man with a child in his arms and a boy singing. They look up the chimney from which the presents have come. In the foreground on the floor and on a bench are cakes, nuts, and apples. Signed in full in the right-hand bottom corner ; canvas, 32^ inches by 28 inches. Described by Ch. Blanc, Reveil, and Nagler. Sale, Seger Tierens, The Hague, July 23, 1743, No. 178 (695 florins). In the collection of A. L. van Heteren, The Hague (Hoet, ii. 459), till 1809. Now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1905 catalogue, No. 2237. 511. ST. NICHOLAS'S DAY. Sm. 14 and Suppl. 95; W. 153 and 2/6. In the centre sits a woman, wearing a green jacket trimmed with fur. She has a child standing on her lap, and looks out of the picture with a smiling face. On the left a little girl holds up her pinafore and a little boy his hat to catch the apples that a woman throws to them from a window in the wall at the back. A man with a pipe and a girl look on laughing. In the foreground two children are struggling for an apple ; an overturned bench lies near them. In the background to the right the grandfather sits in an arm-chair, conversing with an old woman who stands before him. Signed in full on the right ; panel, 22 inches by 20 inches. Described by Ch. Blanc.