A man on a stool holding a pitcher

The simple figures in this and the following lot are typical of Both; their rough facial expression, their hair sticking out from under their caps or hats, their heavy shoes and their posture are comparable to those encountered in his pictures. Often set outside a house or inn, Both's scenes show simple folk drinking, smoking, making music and dancing. The figure holding a pitcher in the present lot is very similar to that in Both's picture signed and dated 1634 in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, catalogue, 1952, no. 46. A comparable drawing of a woman dancing, in the same technique, was sold at Sotheby's Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 16 November 1981, lot 81 (as C. Moninckx).
The same figure types, though drawn in pen and brown ink, are seen in a drawing in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, G. Jansen, G. Luyten, Italianisanten en bambocianten, exhibition catalogue, 1988, pp. 76-7, no. 41.