The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 11, 2024

Vintage Scene and Peasant Children Dancing (painting pair)

Vintage Scene and Peasant Children Dancing (painting pair)

1650s

circle of Le Nain

(French)
France, 17th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 111 x 142 x 8 cm (43 11/16 x 55 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 92 x 121 cm (36 1/4 x 47 5/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Salmon P. Halle in memory of Salmon Portland Halle 1958.175
Location: not on view

Description

The mid-17th century saw revived interest in representations of the lower classes. Artists like the Le Nain brothers in France painted scenes that looked back to the Renaissance tradition of pastoral imagery. The Le Nain often depicted ordinary country folk going about their daily business, subjects and figures they remembered from their childhood in rural Laon. Considered a companion piece to Peasant Children Dancing (1958.175.2), Vintage Scene has also been attributed to the Master of the Béguins, a Flemish artist who worked in the manner of the Le Nain in Paris. Here, good-natured though bawdy males drink in the background shade, while at center a sweet-faced young woman surrounded by chubby children flashes the viewer a coy smile that reveals her awareness of the slowly creeping hand of her drunk companion. While peasants drinking was a popular subject among Flemish artists, the theme of wine connects the subject with the grape harvest, which recalls the Le Nain's agricultural homeland in France. This use of both aesthetic and biographical aspects of the Le Nain's lives demonstrates the Master of Béguins' ability to absorb the stylistic and thematic lessons of the famous brothers.
  • Count Ottone Ponte di Scarnafigi of Sardinia (died 1788);
    Count Louis de Seyssel, (Turin, Italy), sold to Salmon Portland Halle, 1916
    Salmon Portland Halle, upon his death, by inheritance to his wife
    Mrs. Salmon Portman Halle, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 97-98; Mentioned: p. 97
  • Les Frères Le Nain (The Brothers of Nain). Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (October 3, 1978-January 8, 1979).
  • {{cite web|title=Vintage Scene and Peasant Children Dancing (painting pair)|url=false|author=Le Nain|year=1650s|access-date=11 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.175