Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/292

 268 GABRIEL METSU SECT. 44. THE YOUNG WOMAN SELLING POULTRY. Sm. 113. Under a tree to the right a young woman, dressed in a red gown, a yellow jacket, and a blue apron, stands at a stall selling poultry. She holds out a plucked fowl to an old woman in black, with a wooden pail on her arm, who stands opposite, examining the bird. An old man sits on a tub in the right foreground, smoking a pipe. In the centre of the foreground is a dog. Above, to the right, is a white notice-board inscribed, " 1662 Wilge Verkoping, Hofstede Maersen." Signed beneath the inscription "G. Metsu, 1662" ; panel, 24 inches by 1 8 inches (pendant to 43). In the Royal Saxon inventory of 1722, A. 696. Now in the Picture Gallery, Dresden, 1902 catalogue, No. 1734. 45. THE OLD WOMAN SELLING GAME. Sm. 110.- Before a church to the left an old woman, wearing a brown petticoat, a black dress, blue apron and black hat, sits under a tree selling game at her stall. She is plucking a pigeon lying in an earthenware dish on her lap ; a cock lies on the ground beside her. She turns to the right to face a young woman, wearing a grey dress and red jacket, who lifts a hare from the stall, and carries on her left arm a tin pail with a snipe in it. Behind her to the right is a boy with a black hat. Signed in the left top corner " G. Metsu " ; panel, 22^ inches by 17 inches. Purchased in 1710 in Antwerp, for the Elector of Saxony, according to an old Dresden catalogue ; but first mentioned in the Dresden catalogue of 1812. Now in the Picture Gallery, Dresden, 1902 catalogue, No. 1735. 45^7. A Woman selling Poultry. Sale. Jan Agges, Amsterdam, August 16, 1702, No. 59 (190 florins). 45^. The Dutch Butchers. Sale. Heris of Brussels, Paris, April 19, 1856, No. 35 (51 francs). 46. The Man selling Poultry. 17 inches by 12 J inches. Sale. Mrs. L. G. Bushby, London, March 14, 1904, No. 141. 47. A MARKET WOMAN ASLEEP. She sits dozing at her stall. A boy steals some baked apples from it. This is a very fine work in a brownish-grey tone ; there is a touch of red on the bands of the woman's sleeves. The picture is rounded off at the top. Now in the Moltke collection, Copenhagen, No. 42. 48. ["The Young Woman selling Fruit," Sm. 50, now at Buck- ingham Palace, No. 141, is not by Metsu, but by Dou (127). Cf. 33.] 49. THE VEGETABLE MARKET AT AMSTERDAM. Sm. i. This represents an open place beside a canal, with houses on the opposite side. The upper part of the picture is filled with the spreading branches of a tree which overshadows part of the groups in the foreground. In the left foreground an old market-woman with her hands on her hips is