Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/350

 326 GABRIEL METSU SECT. 219*. A Blacksmith shoeing a Horse. With many accessories. Canvas, 15! inches by 2o| inches. Sale. Van Kinschot, Delft, July 21 and 22, 1767, No. 17 (65 florins). 2i9/>. A Blacksmith's Shop at Night. Very well painted, and treated in much detail. Canvas. Sale. December 3, 1827, No. 36 (54 florins, Meyer). 219^. The Courtyard of a Blacksmith's Shop. Sm. 76. The scene is the back premises of a blacksmith's shop ; to the right is a decayed brick and plaster building, in which are a vice and other implements. The smith, wearing a red cap, an apron, and a yellow jacket, stands in the middle of the yard, watching a workman who sharpens a scythe on a grindstone driven by a horse in a shed at the back. On the ground are some farming tools. Near them are some fowls and a dog. In the background are the roofs and towers of some houses and a church- steeple. Sm. says : "It is impossible to commend too highly this masterly production of art ; every part of it bears the faithful image of nature." He adds that, like the similar picture (Sm. 56) then in the Duchesse de Berri's collection, this is by Metsu and not by Ter Borch. It is, how- ever, a copy of Sm. 56, which is a Ter Borch, and is now at Berlin. Canvas, 31^ inches by 25^ inches. Exhibited at Leeds, 1889. Sale. Lapeyriere, 1825 (6900 francs). In the possession of Farrer, 1833 (Sm.). Sales. E. W. Lake, London, 1845 (246 : 153., bought in). Lake, London, 1848 (55 : 135., Norton). S. H. Fraser, London, May 7, 1904, No. 51 (.162 : 155., Farr). 220. THE BLACKSMITH'S SHOP. Sm. 75. The smith holds a red-hot horseshoe on his anvil, and rests his hammer on his shoulder. He has stopped work to speak to a cavalier, in a red coat and slouch hat, with a cane in his hand, who stands on the opposite side of the shop at his horse's head. A boy is on the other side of the forge, listening. " Painted with extraordinary vigour and masterly execution " (Sm.). [Compare the style of 204 and 219.] Canvas, about 26 inches by 30 inches. [An old copy was in the sale of J. A. Bennett, Leyden, April 10, 1829, No. 56 (200 florins, Van den Berch) ; and of Van den Berch, van Heemstede, Amsterdam, July 7, 1903, No. 155.] Sales. A. Delfos, The Hague, June 10, 1807, No. 71. Baroness Van Leyden, Warmond, July 31, 1816, No. 25 (100 florins), at Christie's, London, 1824 (257 : 53.). The Rev. J. Thomas, London, 1886 (399, Salting). Now in the collection of George Salting, London. 221. SPORTSMEN BATHING, IN A LANDSCAPE. Naked huntsmen sit drying themselves. Near them are a dog, dead hares, a gun, and a red coat. In the background to the left are horses ;