Man Eating from an Earthenware Pot, Daniël Boone, c. 1660 - c. 1680

This undistinguished work is typical of the little that is known of Boone’s oeuvre; the handling is more suggestive of Egbert van Heemskerk I (c. 1634-1704) than any other known Flemish painter of the time. Van Heemskerk was active from the early 1660s in Amsterdam and thereabouts and in London from the early 1670s,7 and his Old Man Smoking in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, which has been dated to the 1680s, is comparable to the present work.8 A common source of influence may have been the work of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), who was active in Haarlem; noteworthy, for instance, is a Peasant Holding a Jug and a Pipe by him in the National Gallery of circa 1650-55.9 There is also a connection in the treatment of low-life scenes with works by David Teniers II (1610-1690) from the 1660s.10 There are no extant dated works by Boone and few by Van Heemskerk, so proposing a date of execution for the Rijksmuseum Man Eating is difficult. The handling is similar to that in Men Playing Cards in a Tavern (SK-A-987). Both may be works of the 1660s or later. Gregory Martin, 2022