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Ceres at the Cottage

Schalcken, GodfriedElsheimer, AdamSecond half of the 17th century

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom

Searching for her daughter Proserpine, Ceres is offered a drink at a humble cottage and is mocked by a boy whom she will transform into a lizard (Ovid, Metamorphoses, V). The composition derives loosely from Adam Elsheimer's lost 'Mocking of Ceres' engraved by Hendrik Goudt.

Details

  • Title: Ceres at the Cottage
  • Creator Lifespan: 1643March 1578 - 1706December 1610
  • Date: Second half of the 17th century
  • Physical Dimensions: w372 x h419 cm
  • Type: Painting
  • Medium: Oil
  • Work Notes: Perhaps ?London, Christie's, Desenfans private sale, 8 Apr. 1786, lot 406 ('Schalken-Candlelight. 42 x 33. £6.6);
  • Work Nationality: Dutch
  • Support: Panel
  • Provenance: London, Noel Desenfans, 1802-1807: London, Skinner and Dyke, Desenfans sale, 18 Mar. 1802, lot 159 ('G. DouwÐCeres at the Old Woman's Cottage'. Descriptive Catalogue, no. 128: 'In a landscape lighted by the moon, at the door of a cottage surrounded with trees entwined by the ivy and the vine, stands the goddess Ceres, her head encircled with ears of corn, holding in one hand, the cup out of which she drinks, and a lighted torch in the other. The old woman, supported by her crutch, holds a lighted candle in her hand; her back is towards the door of the cottage, which is half open, and she is waiting till the goddess has drunk, whilst the child, who is beside her, is ridiculing Ceres, who to punish him, afterwards transformed him into a bat. Several kitchen utensils are scattered over the ground, near the cottage'). Handwritten note in copy of catalogue at The Hague, RKD: Ô14 h. 12 P.' [i.e. Panel]. £31.10 (Bt in); London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1807-1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
  • Imitator of after: Schalcken, GodfriedElsheimer, Adam
  • Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)

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