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1224
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Isaac Van OSTADE (Haarlem 1621 - 1649)
The flayed pig
Oak pa…
See original version (French)
1224
-
Isaac Van OSTADE (Haarlem 1621 - 1649)
The flayed pig
Oak pa…
See original version (French)
Estimate €15,000 - €20,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Isaac Van OSTADE (Haarlem 1621 - 1649)
The flayed pig
Oak panel, two boards, not parqueted
Height : 71.5 cm
Width : 56 cm
No frame
Signed and dated lower right: ... Van Ostade / 1640 Inscription on the reverse of panel B: 26.
Old restorations
Provenance: Sale Ader 1960.
Joachim Beuckelaer's "Hanging Pig" (1563, Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum) is probably one of the earliest representations
one of the first representations of a theme that was widely developed in the Netherlands from the 1630s onwards.
An occasion for festivities and reunions, the slaughter of the pig traditionally illustrates the activities of the month of
and the onset of winter. It takes two days to slaughter and cook the pig that will feed the family for the year to come.
the family for the coming year. For the children, this is often their first encounter with death
and their presence is part of their education. This moment in everyday life becomes a pretext for moral
moral education. Here, the animal, which has been washed outside, is installed in a rustic interior,
probably near a fire. The child observes a woman cutting up the offal, which must be cooked immediately.
The other parts will be smoked or put in the salt cellar. The still life, with its copper cane,
evokes the preparation of the carcass. Isaac van Ostade (1621-1649) and his brother Adrien (1610-1685)
treated the subject on several occasions, Isaac between 1639 and 1643, in modest formats. Close to our
version, his "Skinned Pig" in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (panel, 48 x 40 cm) shows two children playing in the foreground.
children playing in the foreground. Situated around 1642, the panel in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest
(Panel, 41 x 31 cm) offers a cruder image: the carcass in the foreground, brightly lit, is still in a barn.
still in a barn, bleeding. In the background, an adult and a child are inflating the animal's bladder
which becomes a kind of balloon. A little later, "Le Dépècement du porc" brings the whole family together.
carcass hanging from a ladder, the children play with the bladder (1645, 57 x
50 cm, Lille Museum). They defy death and humanise the scene, illustrating a popular maxim that warns against the illusion of appearances.
against the illusion of appearances and reminds us of the fragility of existence: "the world we see is
a bladder full of wind and nothing else". The Musée de Caen has a composition very similar to the one
but by Adriaen van Ostade (Panel, 46.5 x 39.5 cm, circa 1650, anc. Coll.
Fesch). It shows a woman and child in the shade and the foliage of a vine, a motif also associated with autumn.
associated with autumn. These "Flayed Pigs" precede Rembrandt's "Flayed Ox" by several years.
(Panel, 94 x 69 cm, 1655, Paris, Musée du Louvre). The artist who made Paul Valéry say "Rembrandt knows that
Rembrandt knows that flesh is mud whose light turns to gold" left us the most famous representation of a motif
repeated well into the 20th century. In 1925, Chaïm Soutine made it the subject of a series of canvases, including "Le boeuf écorché" (The Flayed Ox)
in the Musée de Grenoble (canvas, 202 x 114 cm).
Expert : Cabinet TURQUIN
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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