Cornelis Troost’s status as one of the defining artists of the Dutch 18^th century is intimately entwined with his relationship with the theatre. His art in general is underpinned by a genius for storytelling, and highlighting the ironies of the human condition, and this talent found its natural expression in compositions such as this, in which Troost illustrated scenes from the most popular plays of his t.mes , many of which were highly satirical. In some ways the Hogarth of the Low Countries, Troost’s representations of theatrical subjects are also profoundly Dutch, the natural successors to 17^th-century images of popular festivals and proverbial subjects, as painted by Jan Steen and his contemporaries, but taking these narrative traditions in wonderfully engaging new directions. In terms of technique, Troost was even more of an innovator, choosing to work primarily on paper, in a unique combination of watercolour, bodycolour and coloured chalks that has no precedents in the art of the Netherlands, or any other country.

In fact, Troost knew the theatre intimately from the inside; he was the child of a theatre family, and himself started out as an actor rather than a painter. There were, though, painters as well as actors in his family, and in 1724 Cornelis Troost finally abandoned the stage for good, to become a full-t.mes artist. But even so, for the rest of his career, scenes from popular plays provided him with a good proportion of his subject-matter.

The subject of the present work is a pivotal scene from the comedy Jan Claasz. or the Supposed Servant Girl, by Thomas Asselijn. Though now considered a classic of Dutch literature, when the play was first performed in Amsterdam in 1682, it was perceived as critical of the powerful Mennonite community, and the resultant uproar led to its temporary banning. It was, however, performed to much acclaim in the Amsterdam Theatre on numerous occasions between 1705 and 1736.

In brief, the story tells how Saartje Jans, the young daughter of two upstanding Mennonites, is betrothed, against her will, to a very respectable but dim-witted young man, Reinier Adriaansz. She, however, really loves the far less acceptable Jan Claasz., with whom she devises a plot to foil the arranged marriage that is her parents’ wish. Jan Claasz. disguises himself as a maidservant, and manages to gain the confidence of the household of his beloved, to the point that her mother asks him to look after the young lady in question overnight, with predictable consequences. In the morning, the deception is discovered, whereupon Saartje faints to distract attention. In the moment depicted here, two neighbors, who are in on the plot, attempt to revive her with vinegar, Jan Claasz., still disguised, attends to her solicitously, and her father appears to be on the point of a volcanic eruption of temper. Happily, the conclusion to the drama was that Saartje’s parents accepted that the best solution was to let her marry her true love, but at the moment depicted here, all is definitely still in the balance.

Troost frequently made variants of his most popular theatrical compositions, and this is no exception. One of the series of superb works by Troost in the Mauritshuis shows the same scene, but in an upright composition, dated 1738, in which Jan Claasz. is placed not beside his beloved, but to the far right, being lambasted by his future father-in-law.¹ Another version of the scene, still upright in format but generally rather closer to this one than to the work in the Mauritshuis, was on the Amsterdam art market in 1986, and is also known from a reproductive print.² In early sale catalogues, there are also some three entries for horizontal versions of the scene, which led Niemeijer to conclude that two such works had existed, but the measurements and descriptions are close enough to each other that it is possible that all these entries refer to the present version (see provenance). Of all Troost’s known representations of the scene, this is, though, the most complex and elaborate, with its spacious interior setting, inclusion of narrative details such as the shards of the pot broken by Jan Claasz. in an earlier moment of the story, and attention to details of light and landscape seen through the open window.

This exceptional work, which has not been seen on the open market since the early 19^th century and is only the second substantial theatrical composition by Troost to be sold at auction in the last quarter century, encapsulates everything that is both original and delightful about Cornelis Troost’s depictions of subjects from the theatre.

1. The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. no. 182; Niemeijer, op. cit., no. 379 T

2. Sale, Amsterdam, Replica Shoes ’s, 1 December 1986, lot 153; E. Buijsen and J.W. Niemeijer, Cornelis Troost and the Theatre of his t.mes , exh. cat., The Hague, Mauritshuis, 1993, pp. 58-9, no. 14