Oil on canvas, relined
Netherlands, 17th century
Attributed to Jan Jacobz. Molenaer (1654-c.1690) – Dutch genre painter
Fine gold frame with artist’s plaque ‘Jan Molenaer † 1668’
Dimensions: 89 x 110 cm
Provenance: Private collection, Rome
Charming genre scene in a barn with a dancing couple in the center – a characteristic motif for the Dutch painter Jan Jacobz. Molenaer; his figurative genre paintings fetch up to €12,000 at international auctions

This painting is attributed to the Dutch genre painter Jan Jacobz. Molenaer and depicts a couple dancing in a tavern. The egg dance was a traditional game played in 16th and 17th century Holland. A chalk circle was painted on the floor with a bowl of eggs in its center. The dancers then had to roll the egg out of the bowl with their feet and flip the bowl back over the egg, without cracking it.

Molenaer was a painter of the Golden Age, known for his humorous and often frivolous genre scenes with dancing, drinking or smoking figures, usually placed in a tavern or barn interior.

The painting is in restored condition. The canvas is relined. There is fine craquelure allover and retouchings to the background and the figures. In the lower area the painting has been cleaned and the varnish removed. The frame has been restored. The framed work measures 111 x 130, the stretcher frame measures 89 x 110 cm.

Jan Jacobz. Molenaer (1654-c.1690)

Jan Jacobz. Molenaer was born in Haarlem in 1654. Active during the Dutch Golden Age, he primarily painted genre scenes catering to the taste of the time and illustrating rural life in the 17th century. Often he presented his finely executed figures in taverns, drinking, dancing and bantering.

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