The farrier

THOMAS SLY

Haarlem School (1642-1646)

Oil on panel 47 x 40 cm.
Monogram lower left ‘TSLY’

Provenance
Collection Max Flersheim, Paris, 1918
Collection Ivar Kreuger, Stockholm
His sale 14 September 1932, lotno. 57 (as ‘Pieter van Laer’)

The known oeuvre of the unknown painter Thomas Sly is small. Only four paintings are known. All are signed with the letters TSLY. Two are dated 1642 and 1646. Thieme Becker published this painter in part 31 (1937) as F Sly. It was then connected to a note in the Haarlem Archives where Philips Wouwerman in 1643 stood bail for a certain Thomas Sly, probably his student at that time.

A poor copy after this painting once ascribed to Adam Pynacker is in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck. In 1742 a painting by Sly was sold in Amsterdam: Auction D. Ietswaart, 22 April 1742, lotno. 752 (een met beelden en paarden van Sly).

This painting was ascribed to Pieter van Laer in the past. Philips Wouwerman was influenced by Pieter van laer in his early paintings. According to Houbraken he inherited the atelier drawings of Van Laer in 1642 which he used in his own paintings. If this is true Sly might have seen this drawings and probably studied them carefully. It is unknown if this Thomas Sly was connected to the Dirck Sley, who was appointed as guardian of the three who had not yet reached majority in 1670 when Wouwerman and his wife had both died.

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