i JAN STEEN 69 223. The Gipsy Woman. Sm. Suppl. 74 ; W. 395. A hilly landscape is intersected by a river bordered with trees. On the left is an inn ; a child sits on the steps. In the centre of the foreground is a cunning gipsy woman, who engages the attention of a foolish rustic while a lad robs his basket of eggs. A woman, carrying pails on a yoke, appears to be amused at the trick. On the right two men and two women are resting j one of the women is combing a man's hair. Beyond them is a child. Canvas, 20 inches by 26^ inches. Sale. London, 1833 (42 guineas, Chaplin). In the possession of the dealers Messrs. Thomas Agnew and Sons, London. 224. The Fortune-Teller. A young woman, who has just left her bath and sits in an arm-chair beside a pump, is having her nails trimmed by a maid-servant. An old woman behind her is telling her fortune. Panel, 22^ inches by 17 inches. Sale. C. M. Bronkhuyze van Leede en Oudewaard, Leyden, October 1 3, 1863, No. 55 (645 florins, Van Rheenen). 225. The Fortune-Teller. A well-dressed couple a young lady in yellow silk and a gentleman in black are having their fortunes told by an old gipsy woman, who holds a marmot on her left arm. A ragged child offers the lady some flowers. To the right, under the shade of an oak tree, are six gipsies. Two others are under a red-brick archway near a tower which serves as a dovecot. A child is blowing the fire under a pot, and a woman is picking up wood from the ground. 29^ inches by 24 inches. Sale. M. J. Roelofs Thijssen, Amsterdam, October 26, 1891, No. 58 (2500 florins, Preyer). 226. The Alchemist. Sm. 73; W. 361. Beside the smelting furnace, on the plate of which a charcoal fire glimmers, sits an alchemist, who is in the act of throwing a silver medal into the crucible. The piece and the jewellery lying near it appear to be the last remaining property of his wife, who stands weeping behind him. She is dressed in yellow silk, with a grey bodice and red sleeves, and is accompanied by her child. The man turns his head towards her, and with a smile of superiority appears to make light of her complaint. An empty purse lies in the fore- ground ; in the background to the right a sheriff's officer and an assistant are taking an inventory of the furniture. Signed in full in the left-hand bottom corner i canvas, 13^ inches by ii^ inches. A copy is in the Stockholm University Library. Engraved in reverse by F. Godefray ; etched by J. Eissenhardt. Sales. A. Sijdervelt, Amsterdam, April 23, 1766, No. 33 (100 florins). Holderness, London, March 6, 1802 (73 : ios., Pretbernan). In the collection of Edward Gustav May, Frankfort, sold in 1842 to the Stadel'sches Institut. Now in the Stadel'sches Kunstinstitut, Frankfort, 1900 catalogue, No. 216. 227. THE ALCHEMIST. The alchemist, seen to the right in
