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signed l.r.

oil on canvas

CATALOGUE NOTE

Johan Mari ten Kate was born in 1831, the younger brother of his sibling and teacher Herman Frederik Carel ten Cate. With him he shared a preference for genre scenes; but where Herman preferred military figures, Mari found his inspiration in the whimsical antics of adorable little children.

The roots of child painting are to be found in the late eighteenth century. It was then that the term 'espieglerie' (roguishness) was first coined in connection with those children's portraits by Greuze and Reynolds, in which the sitters exhibit a self-consciously charming mischievousness. A popular movement was the one which depicted children in combination with young animals - pictorially an apt one, because children are often shown with especially anthropomorphic domestic pets for maximum effect. Dogs and children were a particularly winning combination and artists like Charles Burton Barber, Felix Schlesinger and Adolf Eberle specialized in such scenes.

However, soon a school of rustic genre developed, in which smiling peasant children enlivened the works of Lanfant de Metz in France, George Morland in England and August Heyn in Munich. These children were the symbol of simple virtues like family, domesticity and country life and were, of course, depicted in an utterly idealized fashion. These were in huge demand and very much sought after by 19th century picture buyers.

It is very likely that during his travels to England, Mari ten Kate got inspired by this type of rustic genre painting. His favorite subject soon became children at play on the island of Marken. He depicted his subjects most outside, either in the domestic farmyard or in the country, often engaging in charming little deeds of mischief. All the popular 19th century attitudes towards children come together in his works: the innocence, the microcosm of adulthood, the vulnerability and the endearing naughtiness.

The current lot is a perfect example of this. Portrayed here are smiling peasant children on a picnic, as they cheer on a military parade in the distance. Their cheerful innocence is in clear contrast with the adult world the soldiers represent, however distant. Executed in luminous colors and clear brushstrokes, the scene is a symbol for a wonderful ideal world, in which a simple rural country life becomes synonym with happiness and a sense of freedom.