Jan Miense Molenaer (Haarlem 1609-1668)

We are grateful to Dr Dennis Weller for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original (verbal communication, 12 March 2008). He considers the picture an early work and dates it to circa 1629. The composition's broad brushstrokes are very reminiscent of the Hals brothers.

Jan Miense Molenaer, born and trained in Haarlem, was one of the city's most innovative painters during the first decade of his career. His earliest pictures show the influences of Frans and Dirck Hals, in whose workshops he may have trained during the mid-1620s. Following his marriage to Judith Leyster in 1636, he moved to Amsterdam and began to focus his attention on peasant and village subjects.