Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/91

 i JAN STEEN 67 laid in the foreground of a landscape near a village. The quack doctor in black has mounted on a stage, placed on the left; he holds a bottle which a woman is buying. Near the quack a merry fellow plays a fiddle. Behind him an elderly man, hat in hand, waits to ask for advice. Among the numerous spectators are a man with a child in his arms, a peasant on a grey horse, and an old man who leans on a stick and converses with a woman carrying a milk-can on her head ; a woman brings up a sick man on a wheelbarrow. Canvas, 24^ inches by 33 inches. Bought in exchange of Mr. Charles Heusch by Messrs. Smith (between 1833 and 1842, Sm.). 213^. A Dentist. By Jan Steen or in his manner. Sale. J. B. J. Emmerechts, Antwerp, October 13, 1845, No. 71. 214. The Quack Doctor. A quack doctor stands under an umbrella at the foot of a tree and commends his medicines, which lie on a table in front of him. An old woman asks for a remedy. In the foreground are a boy carrying two cocks, and two dogs. In the background a sick man is being carried away. Spirited and carefully executed. Panel, 14 inches by io| inches. Sale. S. A. Koopman, Utrecht, April 9, 1847, No. 31. 2140. Two Quack Doctors. Panel, io inches by 8| inches. 215. The Surgeon. In a bedroom ten persons are grouped round a sick young woman who has sprained her ankle ; she stretches out her bare foot to the surgeon, who kneels on the ground, with his case of instru- ments and his hat lying near him. Canvas, 22^ inches by 24 inches. Compare the Hampton Court picture (182). Sale. Baron de Beurnonville, Paris, May 9, 1 88 1, No. 488. 216. THE SELLER OF WAX FIGURES. A bold-faced hawker shows his little wax figures to an astonished crowd of villagers. His wife, profiting by their absorbing curiosity, picks the pocket of a woman wearing spectacles. Another rogue on the left tastes the milk in the pails which a man is carrying. At a window a peasant is jesting with a stout girl, without paying much attention to the scene below. Signed above the window-frame "Steen"; canvas, 26^ inches by 21 inches. In the first Morny collection. In the old Boissiere collection. Sale. Martinet, Paris, February 27, 1896, No. 39. A picture, identical in subject but painted on panel (5 inches by 5 inches) and signed, was in the sale of H. W. Richardt, Rotterdam, October 26, 1882, No. 55.