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Kalis Boud
Adriaen van de Venne (Dutch, 1589–1662)
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
39.4 × 26 cm (15 1/2 × 10 1/4 in.)
Framed: 39.4 × 26 cm (15 1/2 × 10 1/4 in.)
Framed: 39.4 × 26 cm (15 1/2 × 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
The Maida and George Abrams Collection—Museum acquisition with funds donated by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2020.395
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
What on Earth is this guy wearing? You can almost hear the pots and pans (and scissors!) clattering as he strides confidently along. “Kalis Boud” translates as “shameless vagabond.” Van de Venne made a specialty of satirical scenes, often mocking the messy clothes and rough manner of peasants and beggars. Although meant to be funny, these scenes also carried a serious message about the right and wrong ways to carry yourself. This fellow, no surprise, embodies the wrong way.
Provenance1673, probably Cornelis van Loo and Dorothea Olyvan, Haarlem [see note 1]. 1970, Dutch private collection [see note 2]; 1970/1971, sold from this collection to Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna [see note 3]. By 1973, Alan Jacobs Gallery, London; 1974, sold by Alan Jacobs Gallery to George S. Abrams and Maida Abrams, Newton, MA; 2020, sold by George S. Abrams to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 16, 2020)
NOTES:
[1] In their inventory as “Calus Bende”. This identification was first proposed by Mariët Westermann, “Fray en Leelijck: Adriaen van de Venne's Invention of the Ironic Grisaille,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 50 (1999): p. 257, n. 64. [2] According to a letter from Friedrike Pallamar to James Welu at the Worcester Art Museum (November 10, 1984). Walther Bernt provided an expertise for the painting on September 10, 1970, when it was privately owned. [3] The painting was included in the exhibition “Gemälde holländischer und flämischer Meister des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, November 15-December 31, 1971, cat. no. 27.
NOTES:
[1] In their inventory as “Calus Bende”. This identification was first proposed by Mariët Westermann, “Fray en Leelijck: Adriaen van de Venne's Invention of the Ironic Grisaille,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 50 (1999): p. 257, n. 64. [2] According to a letter from Friedrike Pallamar to James Welu at the Worcester Art Museum (November 10, 1984). Walther Bernt provided an expertise for the painting on September 10, 1970, when it was privately owned. [3] The painting was included in the exhibition “Gemälde holländischer und flämischer Meister des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, November 15-December 31, 1971, cat. no. 27.