Portrait of a Family in an Interior

Nicolas Walraven van Haften (Dutch, 1663–1715)

about 1700

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions46.4 x 55.5 cm (18 1/4 x 21 7/8 in.)

Credit LineCharles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund

Accession number1982.139

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

We do not know the name of this fashionable family, but their arrangement in the painting reveals much about them. The father sits near the center, and a figure who must be his wife stands behind. She has one hand on her husband's chair and the other on an oval portrait of his deceased first wife. The children have been raised well, as exemplified by the musical skill of the older daughters at the left and the obedience of the little ones at the right.

ProvenanceProbably by descent within the family of Thérèse Reynard de Bassieux (b. 1758) until at least 1934, to Juliette Piquet Pellorce, Madame la Baronne de Testa (b. 1884 - d. 1957), Paris [see note 1]. With Chenue, Paris [see note 2]. January 19, 1982, anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, lot 42 [see note 2], to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 10, 1982)

NOTES:
[1] She lent this to the exhibition "Peintres de la Réalité en France au XVIIe siècle" (Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1934), cat. no. 145, where it was unattributed and called "Le Comte de la Rochette de Bassieux avec sa famille." In the catalogue, he is said to be depicted with his two daughters, Mlle. de La Rochette de Bassieux and Mme. de Champmartin, in Nevers. It seems likely that the painting had been passed down in the family with the understanding that this was the subject matter. Thérèse Reynard de Bassieux--Juliette Piquet Pellorce's great great-grandmother--was the daughter of David Reynard de la Rochette. [2] An old label from the Chenue shipping firm, which is consistent with similar labels dating to around the 1920s, remains on the reverse of the painting. Partially obliterated, it appears to read "Rosenbaum." [3] Attributed in the catalogue to P. Bergaigne.