Collection Henderik Catharinus Valkema Blouw, Amsterdam, jusqu'en 1954 ;

Vente anonyme ; Amsterdam, Muller & co, 2-4 mars 1954, n° 45 ;

Chez Alfred Brod, Londres, en 1956 ;

Chez Edward Speelman Ltd., Londres, en 1957 ;

Vente anonyme ; Londres, Sotheby's, 8 juillet 2004, n° 4 ;

Galerie De Jonckheere, Paris ;

Acquis auprès de cette dernière par les parents des actuels propriétaires en 2005 ;

Collection particulière, France

Old Master Drawings, Londres, Brod Gallery, 17 octobre - 24 novembre 1956, n° 3

Park und Garten in der Malerei vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 1957, n° 3, tadel 2 (décrit comme gouache sur papier)

Ariane van Suchtelen, in cat. exp. Dawn of the Golden Age : Northern Netherlan­dish art 1580‑1620, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1993 ‑ 1994, p. 520, cat. 196, note 3

Elmer Kolfin, The young gentry at play : Northern Netherlandish scenes of merry companies, 1610-1645, Leyde, 2005, p. 23-24, p. 36, ill. 19

Our superb gouache is part of the remarkable production of miniatures (‘verlichterykens’) that Hans Bol regularly executed from nature (‘nae t’leven’). These works all derive from the art of miniature. The meticulous brushwork, the painted border around the scene and the use of gold are all elements borrowed from this technique.

A group of elegantly dressed young people cavort in a walled garden in front of an impressive castle. Sometimes called a jardin d’amour (a “love garden”), this scene illustrates an aspect of the countryside, a theatre of leisure and pleasure for the wealthy youth of the city. This merry company strolls, chats, dances, picnics or plays ball. A man sitting on the lap of a young woman raises his glass so that a page can fill it. But before him, a jester appears: by his presence, he is a warning against human failings and in particular the succumbing to a life of pleasure while neglecting more serious matters.

This joyous gathering, where one can arrive by boat, contrasts with the scene on the left, which shows peasants fighting. Perhaps this scene illustrates the divide between the wealthy youth who indulge in a life of pleasure and rejoicing in a closed environment and the community of more ordinary people who devote themselves to a life of toil punctuated by minor conflicts. This iconography of the garden of love can be seen in several of Hans Bol’s works. It is closely linked to representations of spring (see, for example, Landscape with an Allegory of Spring, gouache on vellum, 13 x 20 cm, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, no. 825, fig. 1).

This allegory shows on the one hand, work in the fields and on the other hand near a castle, like the one shown in our gouache, a gathering of elegantly dressed young people in a garden. The castle motif appears repeatedly in Hans Bol's art. Let us mention the gouache in the Statens Museum in Copenhagen (no. KMS1960) depicting a tournament near a castle (fig. 2).

Hans Bol was one of the first Dutch artists to produce topographical views of cities with such precision. In our gouache, we seem to be able to recognise the city of Dordrecht in the background (1), while in another gouache by Bol, he depicts his adopted city, Amsterdam, with great acuity (Hans Bol, View of Amsterdam, 1589, gouache, 11.7 x 33.1 cm, private collection, Belgium).(2) Our work should be compared with other gouaches by Hans Bol on similar themes, such as the one in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (23.5 x 32.5 cm, inv. M.508) depicting a park in a landscape (fig. 3).

Two pen drawings can be linked to our gouache. A sheet currently on view at the Galerie Benjamin Peronnet is a direct preparatory work for ours (3). This drawing, signed and dated 1587, highlights Hans Bol’s creative process as he elaborated his miniatures on paper with precision (fig. 4). The composition is the same, only the figures are not included. Another drawing, sold in Rouen in 2023, represents a construction that is close to ours (4). Dated 1580, we can see a similar staging, which shows that the composition was already in gestation four years before its execution. The castle shown in the centre of the composition is also reminiscent of the one shown in our gouache (fig. 5).These sort of ‘empty’ drawings are known for many miniatures. The fact that there are two versions here may indicate that Bol also offered the signed version for sale as a stand-alone drawing, while he kept the unsigned version as a souvenir for his own documentation.

Hans Bol seems to have had a relatively prosperous end to his life, largely in thanks to his miniatures, which were expensive works intended for a relatively wealthy clientele. He enjoyed considerable fame, as evidenced by the copies of his watercolours done during his lifetime, and by the reception of his oeuvre by followers such as David Vinckboons and Esaias van de Velde after his death.

 1.     The overall appearance of the silhouette of the city in the distance with a wide stream (de Maas?) could correspond to a view of Dordrecht from the south as depicted in the drawing Abraham Sends Away Hagar and Ishmael, 1592 (see catalogue Tales of The City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, 2022, cat. 12), but the representation of the buildings is too schematic for us to be absolutely certain that it is Dordrecht. We also note that the distance between the church building, known as the Onze Lieve-Vrouwekerk, and what appears to be the Vuylpoort is too great. Other researchers have suggested that it might depict Antwerp.

2.    We are referring here to the exhibition catalogue mentioned above: Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlan­dish art 1580‑1620, Amsterdam, 2013, p. 260.

3.    Hans Bol, Paysage au monastère, pen and black ink, grey wash, 16.5 x 23.5 cm, Galerie Benjamin Peronnet, Paris.

4.    Hans Bol, Jeux de balles devant un château, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 19.2 x 26.5 cm, (Anonymous sale; Rouen, Normandy Auction, 2 July 2023, Lot 279).

We are grateful to Stefaan Hautekeete for his help in writing this catalogue entry.