painting (oil): ["The Dwarf Fiddler"]

Cornelis Bega was a pupil of Adrien van Ostade and, like his master, his work often featured scenes from the lives of Dutch peasantry. In this early by Bega, a cloaked fiddler plays and sings to a group of rustics outside a cottage doorway. Some of the onlookers, including a boy with a hoop who may be a hunchback, and a couple in embrace, join in his song. On the left, a male figure in a red waistcoat sits with his back to us. There is a tankard beside his stool. Virag 12/12/2004, Between 1984 and 1985, a research assistant, Dr. Brendan Cassidy, was employed by Nottingham Castle Museum to research and write a catalogue of the foreign oil paintings in their collection. The catalogue never materialised, but drafts and notes relating to Cassidy's research can be found in the Artist Files and in the Archive at the Museum. All references to Cassidy relate to these documents. In her catalogue raisonne of Bega's work, Mary Ann Scott dates the Nottingham panel to c.1652 on the basis of comparisons between the "Street Musician" of c.1654 in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem and the "Tavern Scene with Fiddler" of c.1652 in the National Museum, Prague. Scott gives the provenance of NCM 1904-87 as: "Probably with the Marquis de Paulmy collection; Le Brun collection; Godson Millns bequest, 1904". Scott's argument is based on two engravings dedicated to the Marquis de Paulmy, one of which bears an additional inscription relating to a M. Le Brun. Cassidy disagrees and suggests that the engravings, though very similar to the Nottingham panel, seem to reflect more closely the Rennes oil sketch. He states that Le Brun was presumably the owner of the original painting by Bega (now missing) from which the print was copied. Cassidy believes the Rennes oil sketch to be a prearatory work for the missing original and NCM 1904-87 another version of it. Scott cites the Rennes oil sketch as a copy of NCM 1904-87. On the front: The cork inlays holding the panel into the frame are visible from the front; suggest re-fixing. There is a small area of re-touching, lower centre, near the fiddler's feet. On the reverse: 1. NCM accession number 2. A strip of brown paper, partly torn off, down the centre of the panel inscribed in black ink : "24" 3. Underneath, in pencil: "10" Apart from paint losses around the edges, and especially in the lower right hand corner, this panel is in good condition. According to Cassidy, it was cleaned in 1985, although there is no correspondence relating to this in the Artist File. X-rays have revealed that there is a portrait of a man, half-length with his head turned slightly to the right, underneath the present composition. The figure appears to have his right hand resting on his hip. Several of the compositional elements of the Nottingham picture, such as the poses of the figures and especially the seated figure viewed from behind, can be seen in other works by Bega. There is a related oil sketch in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rennes. In this work, the boy does not have a hoop and the fiddler's costume is different. Virag 12/12/2004, Collection of Richard Godson Millns.