(Antwerp 1582/84–1666 Haarlem)
The ‘Rommelpot’ player,
oil on canvas, 99 x 73.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Count Andrzej Jerzy Filip Mniszech (1823–1905), Paris;
Collection of Count Léon Mniszech (1849–1901), Paris;
his deceased sale, Paul Chevallier, Paris, 9 April 1902, lot 126 (as Frans Hals, with measurements 100 x 75 cm), sold to Fischoft;
Collection of Edward R. Bacon (1848–1915), New York;
by descent to his brother Walter R. Bacon (1845–1917), New York;
by descent to his wife Virginia P. Bacon (1853–1919), New York;
sale, Christie Manson & Woods, London, 12 December 1919, lot 79 (as Frans Hals);
Collection of John Duncan Vaughan Campbell, 5th Earl Cawdor (1900–1970);
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 28 April 1965, lot 7 (as Frans Hals);
Collection of Dino Fabbri (1920–2001), Milan, 1988;
with De Jonckheere Gallery, Geneva, 1990 (as Frans Hals);
Collection of Carlo Cottarelli, Milan, 1991;
and thence by descent

Literature:
W. Bode, "Studien zur Geschichte der Holländischen Malerei", Braunschweig 1883, p. 84, no. 61 (as Frans Hals);
E. W. Moes, Frans Hals. Sa vie et son oeuvre, Bruxelles 1909, p. 109, no. 223;
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, vol. III, Esslingen/Paris 1910, p. 39, no. 13 (as a replica);
W. Bode, Frans Hals und seine Werke, Berlin 1914, p. 24, no. 11, pl. 7a (as a replica after an unidentified original);
S. Seymour, Frans Hals, vol. III, London 1974, mentioned under no. L3-4, p. 118 (as a copy)

The present painting is registered in the RKD database under no. 1001728066 (as Studio of Frans Hals).

Best known as one of the greatest portrait painters of the seventeenth century, Frans Hals also painted lively scenes of revellers and peasants. The present work refers to one of his most celebrated compositions: a group of children look amused at a "rommelpot" player, a musical instrument made of a pig’s bladder stretched over an earthenware jug, half-filled with water, producing sounds that mimic the low grunting of a pig. This street entertainment was particularly associated with the pre-Lenten celebration of Shrove Tuesday, when children went from door to door singing and dancing in exchange for money or sweets. The "rommelpot" player is wearing a hat with a foxtail, a traditional attribute of fools, relating to Carnival’s folly.

It is thought that Frans Hals developed two different prototypes of this subject and both of the original works are still untraced but known through replicas: The first version depicts five children, with the second child from the bottom looking out at the spectator, as seen in the painting now in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (acc. no. ACF 1951.01). The second version shows six children, with the second child from the bottom looking at the "rommelpot" player, along with some other changes, as in the present painting (for a census of known versions see: S. Slive, Frans Hals, vol. III, London 1974, no. L3, pp. 116–118). This subject was also reproposed by other Dutch painters, as demonstrated by Jacob Toorenvliet’s copper, today in the Leiden collection (inv. no. JT-101) and Jan Steen’s panel in the Manchester Art Gallery (inv. no. 1979.503).

The provenance of the present painting can be traced back to the early twentieth century, when it appeared at the sale of the collection of Polish Count Léon Mniszech held in Paris in 1902. He had inherited it from his father Count Andrzej Jerzy Filip Mniszech, a great collector of French Rococo art and Dutch masters of the seventeenth century. In his pioneering "Studien zur Geschichte der Holländischen Malerei", published in 1883, Wilhelm von Bode recorded no less than ten paintings attributed to Hals in the count’s collection.