(Brussels 1618–1664 Goa)
A shepherd observing a woman feeding her child,
oil on canvas, 66.5 x 50.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European Collection

We are grateful to Peter C. Sutton for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

We are also grateful to Laura Laureati for independently confirming the attribution of the present painting.

The present painting relates to a similar work by Michael Sweerts sold in these rooms 25 October 2023, lot 93.

This realistic composition is probably set in the courtyard of a farm. From the background a hunter, accompanied by some young men and a dog, points to the shepherd family in the right foreground, feeding their son; above, a woman looks out, curious, from the threshold of a house.

The subjects of poverty and charity were familiar to the Flemish painter Michael Sweerts, who depicted the poor with piety, adding a sense of participation in their suffering, as shown by the diary entry of a missionary who met the painter in Amsterdam in 1661: ‘[Sweerts] fasted almost every day and divided his possessions among the poor’ (see G. Briganti, L. Trezzani, L. Laureati [eds.], I Bamboccianti, Rome 1983, p. 313).

The present painting belongs to the artist’s Italian period and was painted during his stay in the second half of the 1640s. Indeed, there are notable stylistic, compositional and thematic analogies with other works made by Sweerts in Rome. Among these are The card players, now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. SK-A-1958) and the Buona Ventura or Good Fortune, conserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nîmes (see M. Dolcetti, R. Kultzen (eds.), Michiel Michael Sweerts. Bruxelles 1618 – Goa 1664, Doornspijk 1996, p. 92, cat. no. 17).

Michael Sweerts was born in Brussels in 1618 where he is registered as having been baptised in the church of Saint Nicholas. Little is known regarding his training as a painter. The first document for his biography dates to 1646 when he was registered in the parish of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, aged 28. This document also tells us that he shared his lodgings with another painter. Sweerts became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and Prince Camillo Pamphilj, the nephew of Pope Innocent X was amongst his patrons. He returned to the Low Countries in 1652 establishing himself in Brussels in 1656, where he founded a drawing school. In 1660 he spent a brief period in Amsterdam, subsequently he left for China as a Catholic missionary in 1662. He only reached Goa in 1664, where he stayed with the Jesuits and where he died that same year.

Sweerts was a versatile artist, and his paintings reveal the influence of both the Northern and Southern European schools of painting. His compositions were frequently inspired by street scenes and daily life, such as is apparent in the present painting. The artist was also inspired by classical antiquity as "all’antica" architectural settings appear in some of his works, while in others he depicts plaster or marble statues.