(Antwerp 1614–1672)
A farmyard scene,
oil on canvas, 96.5 x 125 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Galerie Leger, London & Brussels, 1953;
where acquired by the grandfather of the present owner

Exhibited:
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich - Musée des Beaux-Arts, on loan between 1975–1988;
Winterthur, Museum Stiftung Jakob Briner, on loan between 1990–1991

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

With its carefully arranged still life of fresh vegetables in the foreground of the composition, the present work relates to a painting offered in these rooms in 2013 (see sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 15 October 2013, lot 844). The scene of the 2013 painting is set on a similar southern countryside farm, lit by comparable warm and gentle Mediterranean sunlight.

Abraham Willemsen was born in Antwerp in 1614. In 1627/28 he became a pupil of Guilliam Anthoni (Antonissens) and is recorded in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, later becoming elected as dean in 1645. He was recorded in Paris the same year. It is assumed that he operated a large workshop of his own to supply the export market, notably to Spain, where many of his paintings can still be found. Later falling into obscurity, the painter was virtually unknown until the discovery in the early 1990s of a painting signed in full. Since then, his oeuvre has gradually been reconstituted.