Jan Weenix

(Amsterdam 1640–1719)
Portrait of a boy in a park landscape, with a birdcage and a dog,
oil on canvas, 102 x 154 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 30 May 1979, lot 148 (as Jan Baptist Weenix);
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 1989, lot 54;
Private collection, Austria (2003);
Private collection, Germany

The present painting is listed in the files of the RKD, The Hague, under no. 1001244222.

The present painting can be assigned to a time period early on in Jan Weenix’s career when he was focused on producing Italianate scenes. He trained under his father, Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1659), who was hugely influential on this genre and was regarded as one of the leading Dutch Italianate painters of the mid-seventeenth century, sharing this esteemed position with artists such as Jan Both and Jan Asselijn. Jan Baptist Weenix was best-known and commended for his paintings depicting ruins and monuments, which were populated by contemporary Dutch figures. His works in this manner played a strong influence on his son Jan, although Jan modified them to suit his own style and also added other figure types.