Circle of Hendrik Maertensz. Sorgh (1611-1670) Dutch The Fish Market Bears signature, oil on canvas, 63cm by 80cm Provenance: Houstoun Boswall Collection (via descent from Houstoun Boswall baronets) Private Collection UK This composition presents a wealth of detail suggesting Hendrik Maertensz. Sorgh as direct influence and author at least in part. Numerous distinctive elements can be found in similar market scenes by Sorgh where, as here, a central elegant figure and other key participants are differentiated by bold colour and light from the muted tones and looser handling of background and secondary characters. Patterning and arrangements of specific colours - in this case accents of red/pinks, gold/yellow and grey/white - focus attention on key passages such as the interaction between the central figure and the fishwife to the far right whose cut of salmon echoes the woman's dress. Typical also are the displays of market fare - in this case fish - painted with care and considerable effect, the basket of plaice lower left balancing the fish on the stall to the right. Children and dogs playing or watching in the foreground are also found elsewhere in Sorgh's work, as is the diminutive woman carrying a wide basket on her head and the porticoed market area - perhaps loosely based on related structure/s in Rotterdam. A key note is struck by the fish-seller at centre whose pose echoes that of the Italianate statue of Neptune. Classicising elements such as the statue and sculpted portico - with their suggestion of roots in antiquity to underpin a sense of current civic pride - support a date of c.1665. The painting offers numerous complex and thoughtful passages executed to good effect - while certain areas indicate lesser studio hand/s. It includes two unusual historical details: well executed renderings of a hobby-horse clutched by the sulky young boy and of the handwarmer or muff carried by his mother. The handwarmer appears rarely in C17th Dutch art but was popular in Europe at times during the period - and is famously referenced in Samuel Pepys diary entry for 30 November 1662, which records how he borrowed one from his wife! For comparable work see Christie's, Amsterdam, 24 May 2016, Lot 73 ''View of a Fish Market'' by Hendrick Maertensz. Sorgh held by the Riksmuseum, Amsterdam