Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/355

 ii GABRIEL METSU 331 243. THE FAMILY OF THE MERCHANT GEELVINCK. Sin. Suppl. 30. In a richly furnished room Geelvinck is seated on the left at a table. To the right sits his wife, holding out a rattle to a little girl sitting on the table in front of her. Behind the wife's chair stands the nurse holding an infant. An older child plays with a dog on the floor in front. From an open door on the left a boy enters, holding up a parrot on his left hand. In front of him is another dog playing with a cat. Through the richly ornamented stone doorway is seen an ante- chamber and a courtyard with the wall of a house. The wall of the room is hung with gilt leather ; on it hangs a picture, partly hidden by a small curtain. To the right is a chimney-piece supported on pillars. The picture is delicately conceived, but somewhat tedious. "This is one of the artist's very finest productions " (Sm.). Signed in full on the door-post to the left ; canvas, 28^ inches by 31 inches. A member of the Berne patrician family of Tschifteli, who was in the Dutch service and married the eldest daughter of the Geelvincks represented in this group, took the picture to Berne, where it remained as an heirloom in the family. It was sold in 1832 by a descendant of the Tschiffelis to the Prussian Government. Now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, 1898 catalogue, No. 792. 244. PORTRAIT OF A PRIEST. A priest, seen to the knees, sits to the left at a table in his study and looks at the spectator. He wears a dark dress and cap and white collar. He lays his left hand on his breast, his right on a skull ; near the skull, on the blue table-cloth, are an open book, a crucifix, and a paper. In the right background are a book-case and a globe ; to the left is a brown curtain. The paper on the table once bore a sketch which, like the inscription, has faded away. The picture is painted in the cool tone of the later period. It resembles the picture of " An Old Woman," at Amsterdam (68). Panel, 14^ inches by n inches. Sales. Amsterdam, May 9, 1696, No. I (u florins). D. C. F. Linckens, Rotterdam, October 28, 1857, No. 31. J. van Dam, and C. Fuchs, Rotterdam, April 6, 1859, No. 22. Now in the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam, 1902 catalogue, No. 175 ; acquired in 1863. 245. PORTRAIT OF A MAN WITH RIDING-BOOTS, IN A LANDSCAPE. A fine picture, about as large as Ter Borch's figures. Now at the Gotisches Haus, Warlitz, 1883 catalogue, No. 1607. 245*7. Portrait of a Man reading. Sale. C. A. de Calonne, London, March 23, 1795, No. 3 (.4:43.) ; see Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, i. 228. 246. Portrait of a Gentleman, showing one of his Hands. Sm. 51. Panel, 8 inches by 6| inches. [Pendant to 248^.] Sale. Paillet, Paris, 1799 (3150 francs, with pendant).