© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
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Woman Selling Game from a Stallca. 1653–54

Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)oil on canvas
161.3 x 130 cm
signed in dark paint on side of wooden barrel,
lower right: “Gmet∫u” (“Gm” in ligature)
GM-114Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. "Woman Selling Game from a Stall." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
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The interactions of food sellers and their clients was a theme that greatlyComparative Figuresappealed to Gabriel Metsu. He painted no fewer than fifteen market
scenes over the course of his short career, making it the most popular
theme in his oeuvre. Despite the prevalence of this subject matter in theworks of Gerrit Dou (1613–75) and Frans van Mieris (1635–81), Metsu
painted only one market scene during his Leiden period, Woman SellingGame from a Stall.[1] Although he executed this work in the vicinity ofDou’s and Van Mieris’s studios, this painting differs strongly from those
two artists’ works, as well as from Metsu’s own later market scenes, interms of its large scale, broad painting technique, figure types and theemphasis on foreground still life elements.
Woman Selling Game from a Stall represents a robust female vendor ofgame and poultry who holds up a large hare by one of its paws for theapproval of a young female customer. The coin the young woman holds inFig 1. Gabriel Metsu, The
Dismissal of Hagar, 1653–54, oilon canvas, 112 x 86 cm, Stedelijk
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, S
2209, purchased with support ofVereniging Rembrandt

her hand indicates that the vendor has been successful in her marketing
efforts. The foreground is filled with various dead birds, including a goose,a rooster and a duck. A pigeon, having escaped from its tipped-overwicker cage, is distracted by a black-and-white dog sniffing a dead rooster
in the left foreground. A few other vending stalls are visible in the left
background.
This ambitious youthful work measures 159.1 x 124.9 cm, making it one of
the largest pictures of Metsu’s entire oeuvre.[2] Its enormous size suggeststhat he painted it on commission rather than for the free market. It seems
exceptional that someone would have ordered this work from the young
artist, who had no previous experience in painting large still lifes. In fact,Woman Selling Game from a Stall is the first of Metsu’s paintings tofeature any animal other than a dog.[3]Fig 2. Jan Baptist Weenix, GameStill Life with Hunter, 1652, oil oncanvas, 138 x 195 cm,
Bayersiche
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, AltePinakothek, Munich, bpk, Berlin /Alte Pinakothek / Art Resource,NY

The piece is foremost a response to the work of the Utrecht artist Jan
Baptist Weenix (1621–60/61). Metsu came into contact with Weenix
through Nicolaus Knüpfer (ca. 1603–55), with whom he probably
apprenticed in the early 1650s.[4] Weenix, who is known to havecollaborated with Knüpfer, was a specialist in both Italianate landscapesand animal still lifes.[5] The clearest confirmation of Metsu’s admiration for
Weenix’s paintings is his early The Dismissal of Hagar, ca. 1653–54 (fig1). The stocky, muscular figures and Mediterranean setting in that painting
calltomindtheshepherdessesin

Weenix’sItalianate© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
Page 4 of 10landscapes.[6] Moreover, the fluid painting technique, the manner ofunderpainting the composition, and the choice of pigments are also similar
to that Utrecht master’s style.[7]Stylistically, Woman Selling Game from a Stall relates to Weenix’s The
Dismissal of Hagar. Metsu executed both paintings with elongatedbrushwork and they share an overall greenish-brown palette with a few
concentrated accents of white and red. Furthermore, in both works thefigures stand before an open door of a diagonally receding building
covered by an arched wooden awning. Each painting also includes a tilted
tree in front of the house and a view into the distance.
Although Weenix never seems to have painted a market scene with gameand poultry that could have served as Metsu’s source of inspiration, he did
paint a number of large still lifes. Some of these feature dead hares
hanging upside down, as well as ducks, geese and swans lying on theirbacks with their heads drooping down (fig 2).[8] It is also likely that Metsu
knew of the market scenes painted by such Flemish artists as Pieter
Aertsen (1507/8–75), Joachim Beuckelaer (ca. 1534–ca. 1574), and Frans
Snyders (1579–1657), which show similar vending stalls with rich displaysof various kinds of game and poultry.[9]Composing this market scene proved challenging to the young artist. Theinteraction between the figures is awkward, as the vendor has turned
toward the viewer while addressing the customer behind her. The
positioning of the animals, the tables and the cage looks disjointed, evenchaotic.

Metsu

may

have

exaggerated

perspective

effects

toaccommodate a client’s wish to hang the painting in an elevated position,
but his efforts were not entirely successful.
Although the muscular physiognomy of Metsu’s vendor is reminiscent ofwomen Weenix depicted in his paintings of the Italian campagna, herfacial features and those of her customer resemble those in paintings byMaerten Stoop (ca. 1620–47).[10] Stoop was a Utrecht painter whose
oeuvre shows a strong affinity with the work of Knüpfer and Weenix.
Although Stoop had died by the time Metsu arrived in Utrecht, his impact
is evident in some of the younger artist’s early Leiden paintings.[11]The women’s attire here is not typical of contemporary Dutch fashion. A© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
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revealing top that amplifies a woman’s chest to such an extent would
hardly have been worn by female vendors in the markets of Leiden or
Utrecht. Since the mid-sixteenth century, with paintings by Aertsen andBeuckelaer,artists

hadgenerallydepictedmarketwomen

asseductresses, with the foods they sell underscoring their sexuality.[12] Theslashed sleeves of the woman’s red top may have had a similar function.
They are not in accordance with contemporary fashion, but they do appear
in fantasy costumes worn by Metsu’s depictions of prostitutes andjesters.[13]The female customer’s hooded cloak is typical of fashions from thesouthern Netherlands, which may suggest that Metsu painted this work fora Flemish immigrant in Leiden.[14] As both of the artist’s parents hadoriginally come from the southern Netherlands, the local community ofrefugees was among the artist’s clientele.[15] Metsu’s most important
commission prior to A Woman Selling Game from a Stall was The
Triumph of Justice, which came from Michiel van Peenen, a merchant
whose father was from Belle, the present-day Bailleul, near Lille, the samevillage in which Metsu’s father was born.[16] Their shared origins musthave been the determining factor for Van Peenen to approach Metsu, fortheartistwasnotexperienced

inpainting

suchcomplicatedallegories.[17] Likewise, Woman Selling Game from a Stall may have beencommissioned from a client with shared Flemish roots.
Although the early provenance of Woman Selling Game from a Stall is
unknown, the painting probably stayed in Leiden for an extended period oftime. The eighteenth-century Leiden painter Louis de Moni (1698–1771),
who was a great admirer of Metsu’s work, painted a copy afterit.[18] Although the work is a faithful repetition, it is far smaller in size (58.5 x49 cm) than Metsu’s impressive youthful painting.

-Adriaan Waiboer© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
Page 6 of 10Endnotes
1. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 50–55, 100–4. For more on Metsu’s Vegetable Market in Amsterdam, seeibid., 100–2, 236–37, no. A-94, ill.
2. The largest painting is Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery in the Musée du Louvre,
Paris, which measures 134 x 165 cm.
3. Dead and live birds would appear regularly in Metsu’s genre scenes from later in his career,
but usually not more than one or two at a time. The artist’s predilection for representing birds
culminated in 1655–58, when he painted a dead white cockerel hanging on a string, a rare
independent still life that allowed him to show off his proficiency in painting feathers. SeeAdriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 64–66.
4. On Metsu’s relationship with Knüpfer, see Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life andWork: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 12–19.
5. On the collaboration between Knüpfer and Weenix, see Carl Willnau, “Die Zusammenarbeit
des Nikolaus Knüpfer mit anderen Künstlern,” Oud-Holland 67 (1952): 210–17; and Jo
Saxton, Nicolaus Knüpfer (1603/09–1655): An Original Artist (Doornspijk, 2005), 41, 43.
6. On Metsu’s relationship with Weenix, see Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life andWork: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 23–24.
7. Melanie E. Gifford, “Fine Painting and Eloquent Imprecision: Gabriel Metsu’s Painting
Technique,” in Gabriel Metsu, ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery ofIreland; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven,2010), 159–61.
8. Weenix did paint Market Sellers before Architectural Capricci, undated, oil on canvas, 56 x
44.5 cm, last recorded Bernheimer Old Masters, Munich, 1999, photograph at theRijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, but this painting focuses on
the Italianate setting instead of on a rich display of poultry and game.
9. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu,” Oud-Holland 83(1968): 16, already suggested that Metsu may have drawn inspiration from Flemish market
scenes.
10. See, for example, Maerten Stoop’s Lady at Her Dressing Table , mid-1640s, oil on panel,
61.5 x 51.5 cm, present location unknown, last recorded Kunsthandel Cramer, The Hague,
1977, photograph at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague.
11. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 24–25.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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12. Keith P. F. Moxey, “Pieter Aertsen, Joachim Beuckelaer, and the Rise of Secular Painting in
the Context of the Reformation” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1977), 26–53, 98–102.
See also GM-100.
13. See, for instance, Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A CatalogueRaisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 165–66, nos. A-2, A-3; 236–38, no. A-94, all ill.
14. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu,” Oud-Holland 83(1968): 16 n. 11.
15. On the Flemish origins of Metsu’s parents, see Adriaan E. Waiboer,Gabriel Metsu, Life andWork: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 3–4.
16. Linda Stone-Ferrier, “Metsu’s Justice Protecting Widows and Orphans : Patron and PainterRelationships and Their Involvement in the Social and Economic Plight of Widows andOrphans in Leiden,” in The Public and Private in Dutch Culture of the Golden Age , ed.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Adele Seeff (Newark and London, 2000), passim; PieterRoelofs, “Early Owners of Paintings by Metsu in Leiden and Amsterdam,” in Gabriel Metsu,ed. Adriaan E. Waiboer (Exh. cat. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland; Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2010), 101–2.
17. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 17.
18. Louis de Moni’s copy appeared for sale at Sotheby’s, London, 3–4 December 1997, no. 189,ill., as after G. Metsu. Moni painted several copies after works by Metsu and even seems tohave owned works by him (Adriaan E. Waiboer,Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue
Raisonné [New Haven and London, 2012], 181, copy 2 after no. A-29; 210, copy 5 after no.
A-66 [possibly by De Moni]; 277, copy 4 after no. B-7; 284, copy 2 after no. B-16; 290, no.
C-14; 290–91, no. C-26; 295, no. C-78).

Provenance[Art dealer Lesser, London, 1887].
Sir Thomas-Fermor Hesketh, 8th Baronet, later 1st Baron Hesketh (1891–1944), East
Neston, Northamptonshire; thence by direct family descent (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July
2009, no. 9; [Johnny van Haeften, London]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2009.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Bath, Holburne Museum of Art, “A Matter of Life and Death,” 23 January–25 March 2007 [nonumber, lent by Lord and Lady Hesketh].
Bath, Holburne Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, April 2007–March
2008 [lent by Lord and Lady Hesketh].
Northampton, Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, January–May 2009, on loan with thepermanent collection [lent by Lord and Lady Hesketh].
Ithaca, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, “An Eye for Detail: Dutch
Painting from the Leiden Collection,” 20 September 2014–21 June 2015 [lent by the presentowner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen: Charakterbilder der Grossen
Meister der holländischen und flämischen Malerschule im iebzehnten Jahrhundert . Leipzig,
1906, 62.
Bredius, Abraham. “Lets over de jeugd van Gabriel Metsu.” Oud-Holland 25 (1907): 197.
Kronig, J. O. “Gabriel Metsu.” Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 25 (1909): 99, 102.
Kronig, J. O. “Wie was de leermeester van Gabriel Metsu?” InFeest-bundel Dr. Abraham
Bredius aangeboden den achttienden april 1915. Edited by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot etal. Amsterdam, 1915, 137, fig. 49.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Die Meister der holländischen und flämischen Malerschulen . Leipzig,1917, 90.
Tipping, H. Avery. “Easton Neston, Northamptonshire: The Seat of Sir Thomas FermorHesketh, Bt.” Country Life 62 (27 August 1927): 302, fig. 11.
Plietzsch, Eduard. “Gabriel Metsu.” Pantheon 17 (1936): 8–9.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. Die Meister der holländischen und flämischen Malerschulen: Neu
bearbeitet und ergänzt von Eduard Plietszch. Leipzig, 1958, 116.
Gudlaugsson, S. J. “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu.” Oud-Holland 83 (1968):
16–17.
Robinson, Franklin W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre
Painting of the Golden Age. New York, 1974, 19, fig. 7.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Honig, Elizabeth. In Leidse Fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge,
1630–1760. Edited by Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Nieuwenhuizen. Exh. cat.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. Zwolle, 1988, 265 n. 3.
Kleinmann, Ute. “Rahmen und Gerahmtes: Das Spiel mit Darstellungen und Deutung, EineUntersuchung des illusionistischen Rahmenmotivs im Oeuvre Gerrit Dous.” Ph.D. diss.
University of Bochum, 1996, 145.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667), Life and Work.” 4 vols. Ph.D. diss. New
York University, 2007, 1:93–94, 391–92, no. A-10, 4:1059.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Havenand London, 2012, 23, 169, no. A-11.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Louis de Moni (1698–1771), A Woman Selling Game from a Stall , oil on panel, 58.5 x 49
cm, whereabouts unknown (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3–4 December, 1997, no. 189).

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support is composed of two pieces of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric joined with avertical seam, which transverses the basket and tree. The upper corners and all four tacking
margins have been removed. Fabric inserts along the upper corners complete the rectangularformat in which the painting has been lined.[1] Pronounced cusping along the upper and lower
edges and slight cusping along the left and right edges suggest the original dimensions have notbeen significantly altered. There are paper labels and white chalk but no wax collection seals,stencils or import stamps along the lining or stretcher.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied with broadtransparent brushstrokes through the sky and brown foreground, which allows the light-colored
underlayer to show through, and smoothly in opaque layers of rich paste blended wet-into-wet
through the figures. The feathers of the goose have been painted with dry brushwork and low© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Woman Selling Game from a Stall
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impasto, and the gold strands of the wheat stalks lying in the foreground have been applied wetover-dry.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is signed in dark paint on the side of the wooden barrel along the lower right, but isundated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2009 aside fromminor consolidation along the vertical seam in 2012. The painting remains in a good state ofpreservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The straight radiuses of the triangular-shaped inserts are 9–11 cm in length. The thirdedge of each insert is rounded like a circle wedge.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection