i JAN STEEN 117 445^. THE WANDERING MUSICIANS. An old man, followed by a dog, is playing a hurdy-gurdy. Near him is an old woman singing from a sheet of paper ; she carries a child on her back and has a basket on her left arm. In the doorway of a house to the left are two persons, and two others are at the window. Behind the musicians are a man wearing a red cap, with his hands behind his back, a woman with a child in her arms, and two small children. The scene is laid in the court- yard of a cottage ; there is an open gate in the fence, through which and above the fence are seen other houses and the sky with reddish clouds. Signed in full on a small bench to the left ; canvas, 30^ inches by a6| inches. Sale. Count de Ganay and others, Amsterdam, April 24, 1906, No. 115 (2000 florins, P. Mersch). 446. THE CHRISTENING. Sm. 149 ; W. 88 and 230. In the left foreground of a spacious room sits the mother beside her child's cradle. She converses with an old woman, who wears a black dress with red sleeves and has a glass of wine in her hand. Between them is a boy playing a flute, behind whom is a young man smoking. Near the mother stands a little child ; a man with a tall hat standing behind her brings her a glass of wine. In the background men and women are seated at a table. A maid-servant brings in a cake. To the right a boy lets a child drink from a tankard. Near the cradle a dog lies on a cushion. On the wall to the right hangs a half-length by Frans Hals of a man with a jug, the original of which is now at Kassel. To the left is the pendant a portrait of an old woman. In the centre hangs a landscape in the style of J. Both. Signed in full j canvas, 34^ inches by 41^ inches. Described by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Nagler, Waagen (ii. 118), and Ch. Blanc. Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1881, No. 100. Sale. G. and W. Berckel, Amsterdam, March 24, 1761, No. 124. In the collection of J. Bisschop, Rotterdam, 1771, sold as a whole to the Messrs. Hope, Amsterdam. In the collection of Philip Henry Hope, 1833 (Sm.). In the collection of Lord Francis Pelham Clinton Hope, Deepdene, and thence exhibited at the South Kensington Museum, 1891, No. 73. Now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin. 447. A FATHER'S JOY AT THE BIRTH OF TWINS. W. 461. In the right background of a large room in a cottage is the bed, with the nurse who converses with a woman visitor. In the left fore- ground is the hearth ; a woman is stirring food in a pan on the fire. In front of the hearth a nurse sits in a large basket-chair, holding one of the infants with her right hand, while with the other hand she pulls the blouse of the father whose back is turned to her. On the other side of the father a woman holds up the second infant to him. He scratches his ear with a look of despair. In the background to the left two maid-servants bring the second cradle down a wooden staircase. In the right foreground and in the centre are eight women visitors grouped round a table. From the back a man in black and a woman are entering the room.
