Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/336

 312 GABRIEL METSU SECT. stamp. To the left is an open window through which the daylight streams in. Behind the casement is a globe. On the wall hangs a land- scape with cattle, in the style of G. B. Weenix, in a richly carved rococo frame. The floor is paved with black and white tiles ; the lower part of the wall is inlaid with Delft tiles. The red carpet and the black costume are the dominant notes of the composition. An excellent work ; a pendant to 184. Signed in full in the right upper corner ; panel, 21 inches by 16 inches. Described by Waagen (ii. 116). Engraved by Burnett. Exhibited at the same places as 184. [A replica or copy was in the sale of H. ten Kate, Amsterdam, June 10, 1 80 1, No. 1 08 (135 florins, Pruyssenaar) ; it was on canvas.] Sales. Hendrik Sorgh, Amsterdam, March 28, 1720, No. 29 (560 florins, with the pendant). G. Bruyn, Amsterdam, March 16, 1724 (785 florins, with pendant). G. Braamcamp, Amsterdam, July 31, 1771 (5205 florins, with pendant, Jan Hope). In the collection of Lord Francis Pelham Clinton Hope, Deepdene, which was bought as a whole in 1898 by A. Wertheimer and P. and D. Colnaghi (with the pendant). In the collection of the late Alfred Beit, London. 186. THE LETTER-WRITER SURPRISED BY HER HUSBAND. Sm. 88. At a table near an open window sits a young lady, facing left ; she is hastily writing a letter. She wears a silk skirt, a red jacket trimmed with ermine, an apron, and a large white hood. A cavalier, holding his hat in his right hand under his left arm, has crept behind her chair from the right, and endeavours, without being observed, to read the letter. In the right foreground is a basket of needlework. In the left foreground a violoncello leans against a chair by the window- curtain, which hangs from the ceiling and is partly looped up. On the wall at the back is a cupboard upon which is the bust of a girl the same bust that occurs in the " Portrait of an Artist " (208). On the table, which is covered with a Turkey carpet, is an inkstand. Signed on the table ; panel, 17! inches by 15 inches. [Two copies are known : (i) is Sm. 88, described by Descamps in the Bierens collection, 1754; by Hoet (ii. 527) in the Bisschop collection, Rotter- dam, which passed to the Hopes ; regarded by Sm. and by Waagen (ii. 1 16) as an original ; exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1881, No. 130; and in the Hope collection, Deepdene, sold in 1898 as a whole to A. Wertheimer and P. and D. Colnaghi. (2) was in the sale of SchOnborn or Pommersfelden, Paris, May 17, 1867, No. 79, measuring 18 inches by 16 inches ; it was regarded as an original from the date of the Pommersfelden inventory of 1719.] Sale. Van den Broeke, Dordrecht, June 17, 1717, No. 4 (405 florins). Formerly in the collection of the Marquess of Hertford. Now in the Wallace collection, London, 1901 catalogue, No. 240. 187. THE PRODIGAL SON. Sm. Suppl. 31. The prodigal, in an intoxicated condition and with his clothes in disorder, sits to the left