Dutch painter

Haarlem circa 1618 – 1650 Haarlem

 

Brother of the genre scene painter Jan Miense Molenaer (1609/10 – 1668) and of the landscape painter Nicolaes (Claes) Molenaer (1628/29 – 1676).

 

Genre painter of peasant, tavern and school interiors set into stables and barns, depicting the behaviour of peasants and the ordinary life of the underclass. These gentle low life genre scenes were both a source of delight and instruction for the the town population of the young, mainly Protestant Dutch Republic.

 

Member of the Painter’s Guld of Saint Luke in his native Haarlem from 1640 onwards.

 

His paintings show small figures with round shoulders grouped together: they remind of the early works of his fellow townsman Adriaen van Ostade (1610 – 1685).

 

Typical of Bartholomeus is his use of brownish tonalities. His elder brother, Jan Miense, had started painting colourful genre scenes between 1629 and 1640 while working in Haarlem. It was only after leaving for Amsterdam in 1637 that he turned to the use of tonal, brown colours.

 

 

Society games, best known under their French names.

 

Most popular of the two during the 17th century was “la main chaude”, “handjeklap” in Dutch, “hot cockles” or “slap hands” in English. This game existed already in the Middle Ages. The “victim” (man or woman) bends forward on the knees of a woman. He holds one hand outstretched on his back; he has to guess who is slapping his hand as hard as possible. As long as he does not know, they will slap his hand again. That is why it is called “la main chaude”, that is “the warm hand”.

 

Our painting represents a game which was very similar to “la main chaude”, but which was not so often shown in painting: “le jeu de la pantouffle”, “het pantoffelspel” in Dutch or “slap feet” in English, in which one hits not with ones bare hand but with a slipper.

Especially “La main chaude” was a popular subject for Dutch and Flemish 17th century genre painters. Jan Miense Molenaer, the brother of our painter, regularly painted this subject. But other Dutchmen, such as Gerrit Lundens and Cornelis de Man, and the Flemish painters Christoffel van der Lamen and his pupil Hieronymus Janssens also painted it.