Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)

EMBER, ILDIKÓ: Some Minor Masters on the Peripheries of Rembrandt's Circle

75. Jacob van Spreeuwen: Interior of a Study. Private collection the mention of his visiting Rembrandt's workshop in Amsterdam during the 1640s,

31 or the late 18

th-century information that he was Gerard Dou's pupil in 1643.

32 In addition to numerous weaker works, mostly small-scale, coarsely executed paintings, there have cropped up more ambitious works, attributed to Van Spreeuwen mostly on stylistic bases, but the reconstruction of his oeuvre is yet to be accomplished. For example the larger panel that was in the Tadeus Wierzeijski collection in Warsaw (in 1956), featuring a scene from a pastoral play by Jacob Cats,

33 shows noteworthy qualities in its resolution of the multifigured composition, its confident rendition of space, and the meticulous execution of details, and also betrays a strong interest in the unusual subject.

34 Otherwise his preference was for typically Leiden subjects: we know of 31 Cf. Rapp, B., "lets over cen onlangs ontdekt werk van Jacob van Spreeuwen", Oud-Holland 62 (1947)pp.

72-76. ,2 Cf. Leijdse FijnschUders, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhai, Leiden 1988, p. 222. 33 Praeciosa, 70 x 55 cm. See Iconographie Index 48C49-N-Cats: Spaans Heidinnetje. 34 I cannot help but think that another, far more significant, if not the most significant "problematic Rembrandt" in our museum, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (Inv.No. 342) may also be a work by J. v. Spreeuwen. But for this to be plausible first we must have proof that this minor Leiden master was truly capable of producing first-rate work.