i JAN STEEN 121 Signed in full to the left on the stool near the steps : panel, 17! inches by 24^ inches. [A second example of this subject (Sm. 173 ; W. 191), on canvas, 22^ inches by 29 inches, was in the sale of D. Teixeira, The Hague, July 23, 1823 (1455 florins, Engelberts), and passed into the collection of Leopold I., King of the Belgians.] Sale. M. Sluypwijk-Moers, Amsterdam, April 20, 1803, No. 67. In the collection of the Chevalier Erard, 1825 ; purchased by J. Smith for 189, and sold in 1828 for ij6:Ss,, and again sold, before 1833, for 220. Sale. D. van der Schrieck of Louvain, Brussels, April 8, 1861 (10,800 francs, Antwerp Museum). Now in the Antwerp Museum, 1905 catalogue, No. 339 (see W. Burger, p. 118). 457. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT. Sm. Suppl. 73 ; W. 167. In a spacious hall, with a window on the left, a pillar in the centre, and an ante-room in the right background, a notary with a fur cap sits at a table, writing. The parents of the bride sit near and look on. In front of the table is a carved and stufred arm-chair. From the right the bridal pair enter. The bride, who faces the spectator, is dressed in white and carries branches in her clasped hands. She stands back and looks at the bridegroom with rapture. The bridegroom wears reddish grey breeches and vest, a black cloak, and a red cap j he looks up with an excited glance, and lays his right hand on his heart. On the right a servant, who looks round slyly at the bridal pair, is tapping a cask of wine, in front of which is a dog. At the window to the left two indifferent spectators are looking in. A boy looks admiringly at the bridal pair ; a man, with his back to the spectator, conversing with a negro, points upwards with his left hand. In the ante-room to the right a woman and a man, with his back to the spectator, are at table. A curtain hangs from the ceiling. On the wall are two pictures in carved frames. Signed in full in the left-hand bottom corner ; canvas, 52^ inches by 68J inches. Long in the possession of A. Houbraken, and then sold to the Duke of Wolfenbtittel (see C. Hofstede de Groot, " Quellenstudien," p. 168). A copy is in the Palazzo Tosio, Brescia ( 1 897, No. 34). A good copy of the principal group is in the Hoogendyk collection at The Hague; canvas, 47 inches by 38^ inches; it was in the Rupprecht Exhibition, Munich, 1889, No. 21 ; in the collection of Count Festetics ; in the Hoch sale, Munich, 1892, No. 197; in 'the Lanfranconi sale, Cologne, 1895 ; and in the possession of the Paris dealer Kleinberger. The picture (Sm. 155), described by Sm. from an engraving by C. Bagnoy, in the collection of Count Bruhl, Dresden, 34^ inches by 35^ inches, was probably a copy, in spite of certain variations. According to Sm. (Suppl. 73), the picture belonging to Madame Hoofman of Haarlem, later in the De Morny sale (487), corresponded with this print. W. was wrong in thinking that Sm. confused it with " The Continence of Scipio," also in the Hoofman collection, and now in the Weber Gallery (83). A second and somewhat weaker example, described by Parthey (ii. No. 32),
