Allegorie op de maand maart.

Peeter Snijers, na 1730

Drie personen in een dorpsstraat. Links een jongen met een ram, in het midden een jonge vrouw met een stuk vis, rechts een zittende koopvrouw met een mand met appels op schoot en, rechts een kist waarop enkele haringen en meer fruit liggen. Bij haar voeten een pot met krokussen en een emmer met vis.

  • Soort kunstwerkschilderij
  • ObjectnummerSK-A-726
  • Afmetingendrager: hoogte 59 cm x breedte 44 cm, buitenmaat: diepte 8 cm (drager incl. SK-L-3460)
  • Fysieke kenmerkenolieverf op doek

Ontdek verder

meer door Peeter Snijers

Bedelende vrouw

Peeter Snijers (vermeld op object), 1694 - 1752

Bedelende vrouw

Borstbeeld van een jongeman met hoed

Peeter Snijers (vermeld op object), 1694 - 1752

Borstbeeld van een jongeman met hoed

Tekenende man met hoed

Peeter Snijers, 1694 - 1752

Tekenende man met hoed

Tekenende man met hoed

Peeter Snijers, 1694 - 1752

Tekenende man met hoed

Portret van een oude vrouw

Peeter Snijers (vermeld op object), 1694 - 1752

Portret van een oude vrouw

Medaillon met kinderhoofd met kort krullend haar

Peeter Snijers, 1694 - 1752

Medaillon met kinderhoofd met kort krullend haar

Peeter Snijers

Allegory of the Month of March

after 1730

Inscriptions

  • signature, lower right:P. Snijers

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: E. Smeenk-Metz / L. Nijkamp, RMA, 17 maart 2006

Provenance

…; collection Jonkheer Jacobus Salomon Hendrik van de Poll (1837-80), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum with 49 other paintings, 18801NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 367 (21 June 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 288, no. 36 (26 June 1880); NHA, ARS, inv. 39, p. 288, no. 37 (29 June 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 370 (30 June 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 289, no. 39 (3 July 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 289, no. 41 (9 July 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 291, no. 50 (10 July 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 371 (15 July 1880).

Object number: SK-A-726

Credit line: Jonkheer J.S.H. van de Poll Bequest, Amsterdam

The artist

Biography

Peeter Snijers (Antwerp 1681 - Antwerp 1752)

Peeter Snijers, landscape, figure and still-life painter, was born in Antwerp and baptized on the same day in the Sint-Jacobskerk, the son of Peeter Snijers and Anna de Decker. He was enrolled as a pupil of the landscape painter Alexander van Bredael (1663-1720) in 1694/95, and became a master in the guild at the comparatively late age of 26/27.2P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 575, 578 and 654. His only registered pupil, listed in 1712/13, was his nephew Peeter Joannes,3P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 682 and 685. who was later dean of the guild on five occasions. In 1726, he married Maria Catharina van Boven, the sister of a priest who was to become abbot of Sint-Michiels. His prosperity was marked by his acquisition of Het Hertenwoud on the Meir in 1739. He died on 4 May 1752 and was buried the Predikherenkerk, Antwerp. A sale of his collection was held on 22 August 1752;4P. Terwesten, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen ... Dienende tot een vervolg of Derde Deel op de Twee Deelen der uitgegeeve Cataloguen door wylen de Heer Gerard Hoet ..., The Hague 1770, pp. 61-65. it consisted of seventy-five lots, the great majority by Flemish masters of which two were perhaps authentic grisaille sketches by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641).5S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, nos. III.10 and III.20. A further sale of fifty lots on 23 August 17636P. Terwesten, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen ... Dienende tot een vervolg of Derde Deel op de Twee Deelen der uitgegeeve Cataloguen door wylen de Heer Gerard Hoet ..., The Hague 1770, pp. 349-353. seems to have been of the contents of his studio.

REFERENCES
F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, pp. 727-29

Entry

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this signed allegory set in a village.

The Rijksmuseum painting is a smaller version of one last recorded on the New York art market in 1998,7Anonymous sale, New York (Christie’s), 29 January 1998, no. 3 (one of a set of two); for previous provenance, see note 8 beneath. which shows six figures before a similar though not identical village. An older woman is depicted seated by the same stand with the same fish and fruit, to which has been added a covered basket of apples (there is a pentiment in the outline of the cloth, where a fold has been filled out). The crocuses and basket of fish also appear as does the fisher girl with the half salmon. Differently disposed is the boy with the ram. This larger work was one of a series of months of the year – as specified in the inscription on the Month of January8The months of January, March, July and December were offered as a set in an anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 17 November 1982, no. 9; the months of January and July were acquired by the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp in 1986; the months of March and December were then offered in an anonymous sale, New York (Sotheby’s), 15 January 1987, no. 33. Two others from the series are in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Brussels, inv. nos. 6810 and 6811, see Catalogus Schilderkunst, Oude Meesters, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1988, p. 352 under nos. 5103 and 5104. – and to be identified as the month of March by virtue of the ram (Aries: 21 March - 29 April)9F. Frigerio, ‘Les Animaux du Zodiaque’, in Animaux d’Art et d’Histoire: Bestiaire des collections genèvoises, exh. cat. Geneva (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire) 2000, pp. 67-77, esp. pp. 68-69. and the crocuses (crocus vernus), which flower in March/April.

Of the series of larger paintings depicting the months of the year, ten are recorded in the RKD. No other paintings of the same size as the Rijksmuseum Allegory of the Month of March, illustrating other months are known at present. So, it is uncertain whether it was executed as part of a series or as a single variant of a composition Snijers had already devised.

The Allegory of the Month of January, in the series described above, bears an inscription with the date 1727. It was retained by the artist and offered as part of lot 1 in the sale of his estate of 1763.10Petrus Snijers (†) sale, Antwerp (no direction), 23 August 1763, no. 1: ‘Twaalf extra schoone Stukken, verbeeldende de twaalf Maanden des Jaars, door Figuuren, Vrugten en Bloemen in Landschappen, ieder het Saison can eene Maand, geschildert in zyn beste tydt; ieder hoog 2 voet, 10 duim 6 linien, breet 2 voet, 4 duim 6 linien’. There appears to be no comparable dated painting until the Markets scene of 1756.11Anonymous sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 18 May 2010, no. 76. The museum picture seems close in style to the series of 1727. And it is likely that it was painted not long after it.

The tall building in the distance at right has not been identified.

Gregory Martin, 2022

Literature

Catalogus Schilderkunst, Oude Meesters, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1988, p. 352, under no. 5103

Collection catalogues

1880, p. 502, no. 490a; 1885, p. 73, no. 490a; 1887, p. 159, no. 1345; 1904, p. 148, no. 2210; 1976, p. 516, no. A 726

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Peeter Snijers, Allegory of the Month of March, after 1730', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026332

(accessed 8 December 2025 20:31:46).

Footnotes

  • 1NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 367 (21 June 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 288, no. 36 (26 June 1880); NHA, ARS, inv. 39, p. 288, no. 37 (29 June 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 370 (30 June 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 289, no. 39 (3 July 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 289, no. 41 (9 July 1880); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 291, no. 50 (10 July 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 371 (15 July 1880).
  • 2P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 575, 578 and 654.
  • 3P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 682 and 685.
  • 4P. Terwesten, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen ... Dienende tot een vervolg of Derde Deel op de Twee Deelen der uitgegeeve Cataloguen door wylen de Heer Gerard Hoet ..., The Hague 1770, pp. 61-65.
  • 5S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, nos. III.10 and III.20.
  • 6P. Terwesten, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen ... Dienende tot een vervolg of Derde Deel op de Twee Deelen der uitgegeeve Cataloguen door wylen de Heer Gerard Hoet ..., The Hague 1770, pp. 349-353.
  • 7Anonymous sale, New York (Christie’s), 29 January 1998, no. 3 (one of a set of two); for previous provenance, see note 8 beneath.
  • 8The months of January, March, July and December were offered as a set in an anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 17 November 1982, no. 9; the months of January and July were acquired by the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp in 1986; the months of March and December were then offered in an anonymous sale, New York (Sotheby’s), 15 January 1987, no. 33. Two others from the series are in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Brussels, inv. nos. 6810 and 6811, see Catalogus Schilderkunst, Oude Meesters, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1988, p. 352 under nos. 5103 and 5104.
  • 9F. Frigerio, ‘Les Animaux du Zodiaque’, in Animaux d’Art et d’Histoire: Bestiaire des collections genèvoises, exh. cat. Geneva (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire) 2000, pp. 67-77, esp. pp. 68-69.
  • 10Petrus Snijers (†) sale, Antwerp (no direction), 23 August 1763, no. 1: ‘Twaalf extra schoone Stukken, verbeeldende de twaalf Maanden des Jaars, door Figuuren, Vrugten en Bloemen in Landschappen, ieder het Saison can eene Maand, geschildert in zyn beste tydt; ieder hoog 2 voet, 10 duim 6 linien, breet 2 voet, 4 duim 6 linien’.
  • 11Anonymous sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 18 May 2010, no. 76.