Children's games - Martin van CLEVE (Antwerp 1527 - 1581)
Other versions of this composition by Marten van Cleve and his workshop are known:
At the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (107 x 149.5 cm, inv 2975, see Klaus Ertz, Christa Nitze-Ertz, Marten van Cleve 1524-1581, Luca Verlag Linden, 2014, n° 74 and 75, pp 169-170) or at the municipal museum of Saint-Germain-en Laye (76 x 106 cm).
EXPERT: Cabinet Eric TURQUIN - 69 rue Sainte Anne - 75002 Paris
Our painting deals with the same subject as the famous “Children's Games” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. However, Martin van Cleve creates an original composition featuring several small groups: a little girl blowing into a straw to make soap bubbles, two boys playing on a seesaw, another perched on stilts next to a schoolmaster, others running with hoops in the background.