Jan van Noordt, Shepherd and Shepherdess with a Basket of Fruit (Allegory of Fertility) This previously unknown painting of a shepherd and a shepherdess with a basket of fruit by Jan van Noordt has been kept in a Belgian aristocratic collection since the mid-19th century and is now appearing on the market for the first time. Dr David A. de Witt, author of Jan van Noordt's catalogue raisonné - whom we would like to thank for confirming the authenticity of this work - sees in it “A charming painting and wonderful addition to the oeuvre”. The composition is based on an earlier piece by van Noordt which, according to Hofstede de Groot, was once featured in a German auction, but which otherwise is only documented in a black and white photograph in the RKD database. David A. de Witt included the piece as no. 41 in his catalogue raisonné (ibid. p. 168f), dating it to around 1659. The artist apparently picked up the composition again for the present painting several years later. De Witt suggests a date of around 1665 for this considerably more finely painted version, thus placing it shortly after van Noordt's “Granida and Daifilo” from 1663 and contemporaneous to “Portrait of a Young Man with a Dog” in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. This finely preserved work depicts a scene laden with eroticism, with a young shepherdess carrying a basket of fruit and a shepherd approaching her from behind, gripping her shoulder and upper arm. As the shepherdess turns towards her admirer with a smile, she reaches into the basket to pluck out an apple with her right hand. Jan van Noordt was born in Schagen in northern Holland but lived and worked in Amsterdam. Alongside history paintings and portraits, he also created a series of comparable amorous-pastoral genre scenes. One of the works that is perhaps thematically closest to the present painting is the depiction of a shepherd couple with a bird's nest (de Witt, ibid., 166f, no. 40) which was auctioned by Lempertz in 2015 (Lempertz auction 1049, 16.5.2015, lot 1086). The present painting will be published by Dr David A. de Witt in a forthcoming updated publication on Jan van Noordt in 2023. Oil on canvas (relined) 76 x 63 cm In the collection of Comte van der Steen since the mid-19th century. - In the collection of Marquis de Maillen since 1846. - In the collection of Comte Charles d’Aspremont Lynden. - Thence by descent to the present owner. For the artist cfl. David A. de Witt: Jan van Noordt. Painter of History and Portraits in Amsterdam, Montreal 2007.