Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/38

 22 AELBERT CUYP SECT. Sales. E. J. de Court van Valkenswaard, Dordrecht, April 12, 1847, No. 27 (300 florins, with pendant, Larame). H. de Kat of Dordrecht, Paris, May 2, 1866, No. 20. Von Woyna and others, Bonn, March I, 1898, No. 47. Theobald Theobald and others, London, April 19, 1902, No. 109. 49. A Butcher's Shop. In a butcher's shop the carcase of a fat ox is hung from a beam j near the open windows, in front of which are a table and a bench, lie the entrails, some malt, a pot, a knife, two bladders, and other accessories, with the flayed hide in the foreground. Panel, 16 inches by 17 inches. Sales. Amsterdam, August 8, 1804, No. 39 (10 florins). J. E. Grave and others, Amsterdam, May 5, 1806, No. 32. 50. THE MAN EATING MUSSELS (or, The Interior of a Blacksmith's Shop). Sm. 178. In the right foreground, near the centre, of a smithy filled with implements, sits the blacksmith. He wears a yellow waistcoat, a leather apron, black breeches, and a black hat. In his right hand, which hangs down, he holds a knife ; with his left hand he raises a mussel to his mouth. On a cask in front of him are a half- filled glass of beer and a dish of mussels. Behind the cask, to the smith's right, is the head of a laughing girl. Farther away is a boy wearing a black hat, a long white collar, a brown waistcoat, and a green apron ; he rests his left hand on the cask and points with his right hand to the smith. To his right is a somewhat older girl, seen in profile to the left j she wears a grey cap trimmed with white, a white pinafore, and a purple skirt ; she holds in her right hand an apple which she is eating, and in her left hand, which hangs down, a beer-jug of green-and-white earthenware ; she looks with astonishment at the smith. On the extreme right in an open window, through which a gentleman holding a tall wine-glass looks in at the scene, to which another man traditionally identified as Aelbert Cuyp standing behind him laughingly calls his attention. On the left, behind the smith, are the forge and anvil on a block of stone. Farther away in the middle distance is a grindstone ; at the back is the smith's man with a hammer. In the right foreground, in front of the cask, are a dog, an overturned basket, and other things ; to the left are a jug, a cat, and a hen. The picture is not very attractive ; it belongs to the artist's mature period, not to the early period as the Rotterdam catalogue, following Sm., suggests. Signed in the left-hand bottom corner in white letters, "A Cuijp : fecit" ; canvas, 35 inches by 43^ inches. A somewhat smaller copy, on panel, measuring 20 inches by 30 inches and signed A. C., was in the possession of the Paris dealer, C. Sedelmeyer, 1898, " Catalogue of 300 Paintings," No. 6 ; it was described as genuine, and the various sales at which the original or the copy had appeared were noted to- gether. This copy was in the Van Loon collection, Amsterdam ; the sales, A. Febvre, Paris, April 15, 1882 (5250 francs) ; Baron de Beurnonville, Paris, March 24, 1883, No. 13 (2700 francs); F. Zschille, Cologne, May 27, 1889 (2960 marks, Baron von de Heydt) ; it was sold by Sedelmeyer to C. D. Borden of New York.