JAN MOLENAER (Haarlem, ca. 1654-¿). "Kitchen... Lot 37

JAN MOLENAER (Haarlem, ca. 1654-¿). "Kitchen interior with figures". Oil on panel. Attested by Luigi Caretto. Provenance: Gallery Helena Mola. Size: 40 x 39 cm; 54,5 x 54 cm (frame). In this work the influence that Jan Miense Molenaer (Haarlem, ca. 1610-1668), father of Jan Molenaer, had on his son is appreciated. In fact, the works of Jan Molenaer are so similar to those of his progenitor that, at times, they are even confused, especially since both painters signed with the same monogram J.M.R. Few facts are known about the life of Jan Molenaer, including the fact that he was a member of the Association of Artists of St. Luke in 1684. His artistic style, very close to that of his renowned father, included numerous paintings in which he depicted interior scenes of taverns with drinkers, smokers and card players, as well as domestic and family scenes. In his works one can appreciate the mastery with which he treats color, using a range of ochre and brown tones that give the scene a warm feeling. Undoubtedly, it was in the painting of the Dutch school where the consequences of the political emancipation of the region, as well as the economic prosperity of the liberal bourgeoisie, were most openly manifested. The combination of the discovery of nature, objective observation, the study of the concrete, the appreciation of the everyday, the taste for the real and material, the sensitivity to the seemingly insignificant, made the Dutch artist commune with the reality of everyday life, without seeking any ideal alien to that same reality. The painter did not seek to transcend the present and the materiality of objective nature or to evade tangible reality, but to envelop himself in it, to become intoxicated by it through the triumph of realism, a realism of pure illusory fiction, achieved thanks to a perfect and masterful technique and a conceptual subtlety in the lyrical treatment of light. Because of the break with Rome and the iconoclastic tendency of the Reformed Church, paintings with religious themes were eventually eliminated as a decorative complement with a devotional purpose, and mythological stories lost their heroic and sensual tone, in accordance with the new society. Thus, portraits, landscapes and animals, still life and genre painting were the thematic formulas that became valuable in their own right and, as objects of domestic furniture - hence the small size of the paintings - were acquired by individuals of almost all classes and social classes.