Adam And Eve At Work After The Fall – Attributed To Cornelis Saftleven (1607 – 1681)

Oil on panel. Dutch school around 1650.
Under the appearance of a charming rural genre scene, as was so often painted during the Dutch Golden Age, there is in reality a religious painting. Indeed, this is about Adam and Eve who, having been expelled from paradise following their fault, are condemned to work and pain, like the rest of humanity. While Adam is busy with hard work, Eve carries water using a yoke, surrounded by their flock. Behind them, Cain and Abel, fruits of original sin, bicker over an improvised fire; the one who raises his arm against his brother is undoubtedly Cain, thus foreshadowing the upcoming fratricide. However, such a disastrous fate seems distant in view of the peaceful atmosphere that emerges from this harmonious composition bathed in the soft light of the setting sun. Our artist, Cornelis Saftleven, delivers here a very personal interpretation of a subject little represented in the history of art by bringing together several repertoires. Firstly that of the still life, with in the foreground these copper kitchen utensils, the very faithful representation of which is reminiscent of his Stable Interior (kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). Then the world of rurality, through these animal figures which run through the entirety of his work and which we find in his paintings of cattle markets, such as the one representing the surroundings of Rotterdam in 1659, today kept at the Museum from Rotterdam. If the Italianate atmosphere of this painting is a trait common to the art of his Dutch contemporaries, such as Nicolaes Berchem or Karel Dujardin, the combination of genres in favor of a sacred subject is an originality of Saftleven that we find several times in his corpus, both for the Old Testament (The Family of Tobit and the Angel, Hermitage Museum) and for the Gospels (The Announcement to the Shepherds, Rijskmuseum).

We have chosen to present this rare composition to you in a Dutch frame with an inverted profile in blackened wood.
Dimensions: 39 x 58.5 cm the panel

Biography:
Cornelis Saftleven (Gorinchem, 1607 – Rotterdam, June 5, 1681) is the son of a Rotterdam history painter from whom he and his brother, Herman, learned painting. Around 1634, they were active in Antwerp where they met David Teniers the Younger with whom they collaborated. Returning to Rotterdam, Cornelis became dean of the guild of Saint Luke in 1667. Praised by Houbraken for his rural paintings, he was in fact one of the precursors of representations of farm interiors. However, his contribution to Dutch painting goes beyond this single framework, as evidenced by the unique mixture summoned in our painting.

Bibliography:
- BROWN, Christopher, HARWOOD, Laurie B., Inspired by Italy: Dutch Landscape Painting 1600-1700, London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2002.
- SCHOEMAKER, Laurens, “The flying start of Herman Saftleven's painting career: His early Utrecht years ( 1633-1643), Oud Holland, 135 (2022), p. 85-103.
- SCHULZ, Wolfgang, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681): Leben und Werke, Berlin and New York, 1978.
- SUTTON, PC, Masters of 17th-century Dutch Landscape Painting (exp. cat., Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Boston Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988), London, Herbert publishers, 1988.