Madame Narbonne (according to an old label on the reverse).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on panel has not been cleaned for many years. The panel is flat and the paint layer is stable. The reverse of the panel has not been disturbed. It is painted on a single piece of oak. Under a bright light a few discolored retouches can be seen in the background and there may be a few others in the darker colors of the figure's clothing. The details in the easel, in the stool and chair on either side of the figure and in the floor seem to be very well preserved. This will be a dramatically changed picture once it is cleaned and although some fine retouches will be needed here and there, the overall condition will be seen to be good.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Together with Dirck Hals, Hendrick Pot and Willem Buytewech, Pieter Codde played a key role in the development of genre painting in Amsterdam during the first half of the seventeenth century.  What is remarkable about the present genre scene is how he captured it with such natural immediacy.  An artist, dressed in a dark costume with a white collar, sits in a relaxed pose in front of an easel.  He looks directly out at the audience with a degree of familiarity as he lifts a tobacco pipe to his mouth and rests his arm on a chair.  With his right foot planted on the ground in front of him, he stretches his left out and places it on the lower rungs of a nearby stool, topped with various wares such as additional tobacco pipes and a glass filled with liquids.  His discarded artist’s palette has been replaced with a delicate sheet of paper, upon which lie a few leaves of tobacco.  This composition is rendered with a realism that is typical of Codde, and the utmost care is taken in capturing small details within the scene, from the colors atop the palette, to the folds of the thick clothing, and to the thin strings stretching the canvas on the easel.   The coloring employed is also characteristic of his muted palette, restricted to mostly shades of green and brown, which allowed for him to concentrate on representations of light and texture within the scene.  

This composition, which can be closely compared to his self-portrait in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam,¹ appears to have been both popular and successful for Codde, for he executed a number of versions on this same small scale.  Other examples, all of which are unsigned, are found in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,² the Hallywlska Museum in Stockholm,³ and in a private collection in New York.⁴  

1.  Oil on panel, 30.5 by 25 cm., monogrammed PC, inv. no. 1125.
2.  Oil on panel, 31 by 23.5 cm., inv. no. 3502.
3.  Oil on panel, 32 by 25 cm., inv. no. B.46.
4.  Oil on panel, 33.8 by 25.6 cm.  See Rembrandt: Genie auf der Suche, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 2006, p. 198, reproduced fig. 19.