Support The panel consists of three horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 20, 25 and 22 cm), approx. 1 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regularly spaced saw marks. The upper join has been reinforced with three cross-grain blocks, of which one has been glued onto the wood and the other two slightly smaller ones have been inlaid.
Preparatory layers The single, beige to off-white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It contains mostly coarse white pigment particles, with some bright orange and fine black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. A first lay-in was applied with a thin, transparent brownish paint to indicate contours and light and dark areas. The composition was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, mostly wet in wet. The undermodelling was often left uncovered, especially in the dark passages and in shadows. It is evident for example in the man’s clothing where it serves as a mid-tone. Reserves were used for the two central figures and the still-life elements on the table and floor. In places where the edges were not carefully closed, for example at the man’s left shoulder and arm, the undermodelling shows as light contours. The composition was loosely worked up with lean, smooth, transparent paints, mostly in subdued colours. Thick, opaque paints and bright colours were used in the lit elements in the foreground, with apparent texture of brushwork, especially in the many highlights on the fruit and vegetables and on the copper cauldron.
Willem de Ridder, 2010

Fair. The upper join of the panel shows clearly. The paint layer has become transparent and is abraded throughout, especially in the dark passages. There are many discoloured retouchings, for example at the joins and in the man’s breeches. The varnish has slightly yellowed.

…; donated by Alexander Willem Swart (c. 1770-?), The Hague, to the museum, 1801;¹¹E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De Nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum, Amsterdam 1909, pp. 53-54, 220. See also Inscriptions. on loan to the Dordrechts Museum since 1925

Object number: SK-A-296

Credit line: Gift of A.W. Swart

The main figures are a maid putting a chicken on a spit and a seated man holding a tankard of beer. Another maid is tending the fire on the left, while a third with a basket approaches from the right. Like the kitchen scenes of David Teniers II, his Flemish forerunner, Jan Olis’s works often have erotic overtones.⁴⁴See, for instance, David Teniers , In the Stable, 1643, Kunstmuseum Basel; illustrated in B.W. Lindemann (ed.), Dumpfe Stuben, lichte Himmel: Bauern und Hirten in der niederländischen Kunst des 17. Jahrhunderts, exh. cat. Basel (Kunstmuseum) 1996-97, p. 65. A typical example by Olis is Man and Woman in a Kitchen, Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; photo RKD. This is not only true of his kitchen pieces but also of his amorous couples in an interior.⁵⁵Such as Elegant Couple in an Interior, 1632, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Drouot), 8 June 2001, no. 30. In the present scene, the glances exchanged by the maid with the spit in her hand and the man suggest a sexual tension between them. That being said, though, Olis is primarily demonstrating his mastery of the still life, which is the focal point here. The figures are thinly painted with barely a colourful accent, and the background is only sketchily described, but the foreground is lavish in its detail. The vegetables – above all the large squash, the cauliflower and the artichoke – make for an exuberant spectacle of highlights and chiaroscuro effects. The great variety of foodstuffs identifies this as a very well-stocked kitchen indeed. Spread out on on the table are a cow’s head and offal, plucked ducks, a finch and snipe, while hanging from the beam on the left are a couple of hams. The fish on the floor are cod.

There are two other dated kitchen pieces by Olis, the earliest from 1642, the other from 1652.⁶⁶Man Smoking in a Kitchen, 1642, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Paris (Drouot), 15 December 1986, no. 49 (as Hendrick Martensz Sorgh); Interior of a Kitchen, 1652, present whereabouts unknown; sale London (Sotheby’s), 1 January 1950, no. 125; photo RKD. This might indicate that he turned to the genre only in the 1640s. It is certainly very likely that he was familiar with the paintings of Hendrick Martensz Sorgh, who took up the same subjects – portraits, kitchen scenes, amorous couples and combinations of the last two – in the late 1630s.⁷⁷For Sorgh see SK-A-495 and SK-A-717. Examples of kitchen interiors by Sorgh, one dated 1640, which are very similar to Olis’s kitchens are illustrated in J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders en de dageraad van Hollands Gouden Eeuw 1585-1630, Antwerp 1997, p. 270, nos. 434, 435. It is due to this apparent similarity that several works by Olis have been misattributed to Sorgh, as happened with this particular picture.⁸⁸As in C. Apostool, Catalogus der schilderijen, oudheden, enz. op het Koninklijk Museum te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1809, no. 372. Other paintings by Olis that have been ascribed to Sorgh include Kitchen Maid and Child in a Kitchen, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Uppsala (Auktionskammare), 25 May 2003, no. 37.

Erlend de Groot, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den grossen Meistern: Landschaften und Stilleben, Braunschweig 1969, p. 278; F. Tissink and H.F. de Wit, Gorcumse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Gorinchem 1987, pp. 78-80; E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, III, Lingen 1995, p. 755, no. 296/1

1801, no. 245; 1809, no. 372 (as Hendrick Martensz Sorgh); 1880, p. 236, no. 258; 1887, p. 125, no. 1050; 1903, p. 199, no. 1787; 1976, p. 424, no. A 296

Erlend de Groot, 2026, 'Jan Olis, _, 1645', in J. Bikker (ed.), _Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200108479