BERNHARD KEIL, CALLED MONSÙ BERNARDO (HELSINGÖR 1624-1687 ROME)

Formerly attributed to Antonio Amorosi, whose work was often confused with that of Keil, the present picture was first given to Keil by Minna Heimbürger in her 1988 catalogue raisonné (loc. cit.). Heimbürger reproduces a variant of the composition which includes a dog in the right foreground in place of the alphabet, the whereabouts of which is unknown (op. cit., no. 172a, illustrated). In these pictures, Keil, who worked in Holland before moving to Venice in 1651 and finally to Rome in 1656, anticipates the intimate genre scenes of Giuseppe Maria Crespi in Bologna.