Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/308

 284 GABRIEL METSU SECT. middle distance is a square bordered with trees ; beyond it to the left is a church. It is an especially charming picture ; the execution is spirited and delicate. Signed in the middle of the door-post " Gabriel Metsii " ; panel, 22 inches by 16 inches. Engraved in the "Musee Fran9ais." Sale. Jan van Loon, Delft, July 18, 1726, No. 10 (154 florins). In the chief inventory of the Kassel collection, 1749, No. 101. In the Schloss Altstadt, Kassel, 1783 catalogue, No. 50. At the Louvre, 1806-1815, and then restored to Kassel. Now in the Picture Gallery, Kassel, 1903 catalogue, No. 300 (formerly No. 273). no. A VISIT TO THE NURSERY. Sm. 19. To the right, in a large and handsomely furnished room, sits a young mother in profile to the left. She is dressed in a red velvet jacket trimmed with ermine and a white silk skirt, and holds her infant in swaddling clothes ; in front of her is the cradle. At her right stands her young husband ; he has long hair, and wears a broad collar and a jacket with slashed sleeves. He raises his hat to salute a well-dressed lady with smiling face, who enters from the left to congratulate the mother. The old nurse, who sits at the back between the man and his wife, with her right hand on the cradle, looks round to greet the visitor. The lady visitor wears a silk dress with short sleeves and a black veil, and has with her a dog. A maid-servant follows her, carrying a chair and a foot-warmer. Behind the group is a fine Renaissance chimney-piece supported on four columns, with a large sea-piece hanging above it. The floor is paved with marble slabs, covered with a Persian carpet where the young mother sits. To the right is a table covered with an Oriental carpet, upon which are a basin and ewer, and other articles. Behind it is a richly ornamented bed. In the back- ground to the left an open door leads into another room. Signed in full above the door and dated 1661 ; canvas, 30 inches by 31 1 inches. Described by Houbraken (iii. 40) and Descamps. A good old copy was in the possession of L. Nicholson, London, March 1902. [Cf. nor.] Probably the picture, then in the cabinet of Jan Jacobsz Hinloopen, to which Jan Vos made a poem, 1662. In the possession of Jan de Wolf, The Hague, when seen by Houbraken (before 1718). Sales. Amsterdam, May 1 8, 1706, No. 2 (435 florins). D. letswaart, Amsterdam, April 22, 1749, No. 24 (850 florins). G. Braamcamp, Amsterdam, July 31, 1771, No. 124 (200 florins, P. Gets). Due de Morny, Paris, May 31, 1865, No. 59 (50,000 francs, bought in). In the possession of the dealer Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1895, No. 15. In the collection of the late Rodolphe Kann, Paris ; purchased as a whole by the London dealers Messrs. Duveen, August 1907.