Matthijs Naiveu

Private collection, Switzerland, by 1956;

With P. de Boer, Amsterdam, by 1990;

With Rob Smeets, Milan, by 1993;

Where acquired by the present owner.

E. Boer, 'Het Sinterklaasfeest', in Tableau, vol. 20, no. 3, December 1997, p. 53, reproduced in colour p. 52.

Naiveu began to paint scenes of outdoor theatrical entertainment with harlequins and Commedia dell'Arte figures in the 1680s. Quite different from the Quacksellers and Rhetoricians' performances of Jan Molenaer (1610–1668) and Jan Steen (c. 1626–1679), this was a genre that he pioneered, but which became popular in the 18th century in the work of members of the Horemans family and, ultimately, Cornelis Troost (1696–1750) and his followers. The adoption of a new range of subject matter seems to have followed Naiveu's move to Amsterdam in 1678, where his appointment as hop inspector did not seem to stem his output.