The Happy Family

In 1933 the Belgian art historian Paul Fierens set this picture beside the peasant feasts of Jacob Jordaens, the Antwerp painter of rowdy tables. The father raising his glass, he wrote, drinks like a king of the feast, while the children keep a seriousness beyond their years. The Louvre's own catalogue looks further north for a match, to the family and tavern scenes of Frans Hals and Jan Miense Molenaer in Haarlem. On the table the loaf gets unusual care, its crust painted to catch the light. The museum keeps the attribution to the Le Nain brothers as a group, while leaning towards Mathieu, working under the direct influence of his brother Louis. The little white cat with black-spotted ears, lying in the corner, turns up again sheltering behind a cooking pot in the brothers' Peasant Family, also in the Louvre.