Lot 20
  • 20

Abel Grimmer Antwerp circa 1570 - 1618/9

bidding is closed

Description

  • Abel Grimmer
  • An allegory of Summer
  • oil on oak panel

Provenance

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 13 October 1989, lot 51;
With Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Literature

R. de Bertier de Sauvigny, Jacob et Abel Grimmer, Belgium 1991, p. 268, no. 28, reproduced in colour plate 95.

Condition

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine oak panel which has a fairly old cradle, probably from the mid twentieth century. There are traces of movement in slight horizontal cracks, which can sometimes result from cradling but may have predated it, and none seem definitively recent. There is no history of flaking or loose paint. Retouching is mainly confined to the sky and particularly the lower sky just above the horizon towards the left, with some in the nearby foliage at upper left, but otherwise there are only a few minor touches in the trunks of the trees to the left with occasional little horizontal lines in the cornfield. The foreground is beautifully preserved, rich and unworn, as are the peasants cutting the corn and other details such as the sheep wandering in the woods on the left with the shepherd. The sky may well have contained smalt which has faded into the ground, and the ground is quite apparent throughout with the naturally increased transparency of the paint, but it is only along the lower horizon that there is any wear, elsewhere the paint is beautifully preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

Abel was the son of Jacob Grimmer, whom Vasari considered one of the best landscapists of his time, and of whom Van Mander made the claim that he knew of no other artist so 'outstandingly skilled in landscapes'. Abel's paintings owe a great deal to his father and also to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose prints he often copied. While he also painted church interiors and imaginary interiors inspired by Hans Vredeman de Vries, Grimmer is perhaps best known for his depictions of peasants at work or leisure in the outdoors, such as the present work.

This painting was almost certainly painted as one of a series of four depicting the seasons. As Reine de Bertier de Sauvigny has suggested,1 it can perhaps be linked with The Month of May formerly with Galerie R. Finck, Brussels, which is of approximately the same dimensions and stylistically very similar.2  It is also possible that this panel was painted as a single month in a series of the twelve months of the year. While the majority of these series are now incomplete, De Bertier de Sauvigny cites one complete set of twelve, last recorded in Belgium.3

1.  See De Bertier de Sauvigny, under Literature.
2.  De Bertier de Sauvigny, op. cit., p. 264, no. 9, reproduced fig. 136.
3.  Ibid., p. 214, cat. no. XLI, most reproduced.