Allegory of the Month of March, Peeter Snijers, after 1730 – (Peeter Snijers) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Peeter Snijers

Date: 1730

Size: 59 x 44 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this signed allegory set in a village. The Rijksmuseum painting is a smaller version of one last recorded on the New York art market in 1998,7 which shows six figures before a similar though not identical village. An older woman is depicted seated by the same stand with the same fish and fruit, to which has been added a covered basket of apples (there is a pentiment in the outline of the cloth, where a fold has been filled out). The crocuses and basket of fish also appear as does the fisher girl with the half salmon. Differently disposed is the boy with the ram. This larger work was one of a series of months of the year – as specified in the inscription on the Month of January8 – and to be identified as the month of March by virtue of the ram (Aries: 21 March - 29 April)9 and the crocuses (crocus vernus), which flower in March/April. Of the series of larger paintings depicting the months of the year, ten are recorded in the RKD. No other paintings of the same size as the Rijksmuseum Allegory of the Month of March, illustrating other months are known at present. So, it is uncertain whether it was executed as part of a series or as a single variant of a composition Snijers had already devised. The Allegory of the Month of January, in the series described above, bears an inscription with the date 1727. It was retained by the artist and offered as part of lot 1 in the sale of his estate of 1763.10 There appears to be no comparable dated painting until the Markets scene of 1756.11 The museum picture seems close in style to the series of 1727. And it is likely that it was painted not long after it. The tall building in the distance at right has not been identified. Gregory Martin, 2022