Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/195

 i JAN STEEN 171 " This picture was evidently painted in the very zenith of the master's talent " (Sm.). Canvas, 45! inches by 72^ inches. Sale. (Probably) H. Twent, Leyden, August n, 1789, called "The Fair at Warmond " (W.). Imported into England by Chaplin, "who bought it in 1836 of a gentle- man near Leyden, in whose family it had remained from the time it was painted " (Sm.). Bought by Arteria for Edmund Higginson of Saltmarsh Castle, Kent, 1842 catalogue, No. 20. Sales. Edmund Higginson, London, 1846 (210, Chaplin). Field, London, 1856 Gio6) London, 1864 (.105, bought in). Nieuwenhuys, Brussels, May 4, 1883, No. 19. 652/7. Preparing for the Market. Probably "Laban seeks the images hidden by Rachel" (4), described by Sm. (171) as "Men pre- paring their Goods for a Fair." Sale. London,' 1883 (jC 1 IO : 5 s -> Colnaghi). 652^. A Village Fair. In the arbour of an inn peasants dance to the music of a fiddle and bagpipes. In the foreground are men drinking and an overturned tub. In the background are numerous men and women. Canvas, 44 inches by 55 inches. [Compare 626.] Sales. Oudry, Paris. Auguste Courtin, Paris, March 29, 1886 (4000 francs). 653. A VILLAGE FAIR. Strolling players are performing before a crowd. On the left are gamblers. On the right is a gaufre-seller at a stall. There are more than a hundred figures in all. It has a genuine signature ; 19 inches by 25^ inches. Sale. Baron G. J. F. de Dopff, The Hague, December 16, 1891, No. 74 (400 florins). 654. A Village Fair. Two men and two women sit round a barrel in front of a village inn. In front of them are two couples embracing and a woman who seeks to lead her drunken husband away. On the grass to the right some people are performing a round dance. Some men are brawling near a well. In the distance there is a procession to the church. Panel, 14 inches by 21 1- inches. Sale. Nelles and others, Cologne, December 16, 1895, No. 163. 655. A MERRY COMPANY. Sm. 150; W. 89 and 90. In the arbour of an inn several persons are drinking and dancing. In the centre a couple dance to the music of a fiddler and a flute-player on the right. To the left is a company of twelve persons, five of whom are at table ; the nearest to the spectator is a woman in a yellow jacket with a child on her lap. On the right are seated a man in a purple jacket