ADRIAEN BROUWER attributed to

Provenance
Collection A. Schloss, Paris before 1908
Confiscated in 1943 by the Germans, restituted after the war
Sale collection Schloss Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 25 Mai 1949, lot.no. 9
Dutch private collection

Literature
F. Schmidt Degener, Adriaen Brouwer en de ontwikkeling zijner kunst, Amsterdam 1908, p.26, illustrated opposite p. 24.
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 volumes, Esslingen 1907-1928, vol III, 1910, p.664, no. 220.
Wilhelm von Bode, Adriaen Brouwer, sein Leben und seine Werke mit 130 abbildungen, Berlin 1924, pp. 98,189, picture 64.
G. Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer the master and his work, The Hague, 1962, p. 154
K. de Clippel, Joos van Craesbeeck (1605/06- ca. 1660), Turnhout 2006, Vol II, p. 552, plate 147

At the age of 16, Adriaen Brouwer moved as orphan to Antwerp, where heprobably worked in the circle of Pieter Brueghel the Younger. In 1625 he moved to Amsterdam and in 1626 to Haarlem. However there is no evidence that he was a pupil of Frans Hals, he was strongly influenced by him. He was also active in stage acting and poetry. He stayed in Haarlem until 1631, when he moved to Antwerp. There he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1631-1632, as well as the rhetoricians chamber de Violieren. His works are typically detailed and small and often adopt themes of debauchery, drunkenness and foolishness in order to explore human emotions, expressions and responses to pain, fear and the senses. His work was well liked. Both Rembrandt and Rubens owned a number of his works. He died at the early age of 32.
The attribution to Brouwer is confirmed by Dr. Konrad Renger in a letter dated March 1, 2010, after seeing the work in original.