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THE WOMAN, THE FOOL AND HIS CAT oil on canvas 43 3/4 by 45 5/8 in. 111.1 by 115.9cm. As JaffE noted in 1966 (see exhibited below), the present painting was "justly singled out by Rooses for praise as a brilliantly fresh example of what was for him the quintessential spirit of Jordaens as a painter of moralizing genre." JaffE dates the work circa1641-1645. Rooses describes this picture as "Ia delightful piece of workI The head of the fool is splendid. What fun! what roguishness! His laugh animates his whole being, and infects everybody who looks at him. Jordaens is here an easy first; probably no one else ever painted so jolly, so witty, so comical a head." The particularly wry facial expressions of both the man and the cat, together with the woman's amused gaze, create a painting that is lively and engaging, and especially oriented towards the viewer. An engraving by Alexander Voet, depicting the head and shoulders of a fool only, wearing a fool's cap with bells and feathers, follows a related, yet simpler Jordaens composition. The fool is laughing and holding a cat in his arm. The title of the print is given as Fatuo ridemur in uno [We all laughed through this one fool]. and under it appears the poem: Ich pronck met veer en klinck met bel My kittelt tlieve minne Spel Hupz en vrolyck laet aent grysen lach ick vuijt als 's Weirelts wijsen. [I prink me with feather and jingle my bells; The sweet game of love diverts me; Blithe and merry, eluding old age, - A snap! for the world's wise-acres.] A variant of this subject, with only the man and cat, was with the Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna (see their Gemälde Alter Meister, Winter, 1967-1968, no. 14). The fool's expression differs and his hat has no bells or feathers: JaffE suggests it may represent an earlier interpretation of the present painting. Provenance: Martin Robyn (Sale: Brussels, 1758) M. Porg 3/16s, Paris, by 1908 Dr. G. Decapmaker (Sale: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, April 11-12, 1966), there acquired by the present owner Exhibited: Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Jacob Jordaens, July 27-October 15, 1905, no. 64, illus. in AlbumOttawa, National Gallery of Canada, Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678, November 29, 1968-January 5, 1969, catalogue by Michael JaffE, p.110, cat. no. 68, illus. Literature: M. Rooses, Jacob Jordaens: His Life and Work, 1908, pp. 82, 88, 151 L. van Puyvelde, Jordaens, 1953, pp. 150, 204.