Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

With Samuel Harveld, Antwerp and New York, 1939;
With Eugene Slatter, London, 1954;
Anonymous sale, Nice, Wetterwald & Rannou-Cassegrain, 26 November 2000, lot 107;
With Jack Kilgore, New York.

E.J. Sluijter, De 'Heydensche Fabulen' in de noornederlandse schilderkunst, circa 1590–1670. En prove van beschrijving en interpretatie van schilderijen met verhalende onderwerpen uit de klassieke mythologie, doctoral dissertation, Leiden 1986, p. 50, note 1; reprinted as De 'Heydensche Fabulen' in de schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw: schilderijen met verhalende onderwerpen uit de klassieke mythologie in de noordelijke Nederlanden, Leiden 2000, p. 37, note 207;
P.J.J. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, 1562–1638 : a monograph and catalogue raisonné, Doornspijk 1999, pp. 133 and 353, cat. no. 154, reproduced pl. 225.¹

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem. Paris and Oenone. This painting has a comparatively recent stretcher, perhaps from the mid 20th century. A backboard behind precludes seeing the lining but this is presumably from the same period. The scalloping of the canvas suggests that the initial size of the canvas was initially slightly shorter at the top, but the extra two or three centimetres along the upper edge appear possibly to have been added by the artist or fairly shortly afterwards. There is a quite strong band of later retouching along the seam. One original horizontal seam can just be traced across the centre just above the head of the boy on the right. The present varnish and restoration may also be from the mid 20th century, with an even light ageing of the varnish and fine craquelure smoothly integrated. Under ultra violet light little surface touches can be seen across the body of Oenone, especially perhaps in the vertical grain of the canvas weave in the more shadowy parts of her stomach. The figure of Paris has fewer such minute touches, but one single long old tear (about four centimetres) in his lower arm by the left edge. Other fairly small retouchings can be found in his wrist, his elbow and his shoulder, with a straight horizontal crease just above his hand on the tree trunk. The deeper blue of the drapery in the shade lower down has some wider strengthening, with a smaller patch near the dog, and occasional retouchings in the lower left base. These are rare imperfections however in an exceptionally finely intact painting, with scarcely any signs of wear at all. Remarkable details throughout, such as the fine still life in the foreground, remain in beautiful condition. 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."

The story of Paris and Oenone is one of a number of subjects illustrating the loves of the gods that fascinated Cornelis van Haarlem throughout his career. Here he chooses an over life-size format and a bucolic – almost paradisical – setting to recount the courtship of the son of King Priam of Troy and the daughter of the river god Cebren. Paris is best known to a modern audience for abducting Helen of Sparta, thus bringing about the Trojan War and the destruction of his father’s kingdom. However, it was just to avoid that catastrophic chain of events, which had been prophesized at his birth, that the infant Paris was exposed and left to die on Mount Ida. He was rescued by a passing shepherd who raised him as his own, and it was while guarding the flocks that Paris met the mountain nymph Oenone. Here Cornelis shows Paris carving Oenone's name into a tree, as recounted by Ovid in the Heriodes, chapter 5. They married and had a son, Corythus, but Paris eventually abandoned Oenone to return to Troy.

Ovid relates part of their story in an imaginary letter from Oenone, reproaching Paris for his unfaithfulness, and other aspects of the tale appear in different classical sources. In 1594, the English playwright Thomas Heywood, published an epic poem about Paris and Oenone, so it would have been a subject well known to an educated seventeenth-century audience. Cornelis himself painted another version in about 1600, which is known primarily from an engraving in reverse by Jan Saenredam (fig. 1).²  The compositions are quite similar but in the painting here Oenone is in a more upright position and the figures are more clearly turned toward one another. In front of them the artist has placed a small still life of fruits, and he has added several figures to the scene. At the right is a young boy with a kid, and it is unclear whether the child is just a herder or Corythus, their son. At the left is a large black and white hound. 

These additional figures, as well as the central couple itself, are part of a repertory of characters and poses that recur in Cornelis’ work from the late 1590s onwards. The female nude leaning on her elbow and raising her other hand appears as Venus in Venus and Adonis, formerly in the Kiev Museum (Van Thiel 1999, cat. no. 167, pl. 206) and Venus, Bacchus and Ceres in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (Van Thiel 1999, cat. no. 173, pl. 213), while the child is very much the same type as numerous cupids in various scenes depicting the loves of the gods and other similar subjects. The hound is also a familiar figure, though most often seen in the Fall of Man, most notably the painting in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Van Thiel 1999, cat. no. pl. XI). By 1616, the date of this picture, Cornelis had abandoned the extreme Mannerism of the Haarlem Academy and turned toward a more classicizing approach. Here in Paris and Oenone it is balanced with an elegance and eroticism that gives the picture its remarkable appeal.     

1 Van Thiel cites an article referring to the present work, by M. Hoog, in La Revue des Arts, which in fact relates to another painting; see Van Thiel 1999, p. 353.  

2 There is a small panel, now lost, which Van Thiel considers a modello for the print, though other authors disagree. See Van Thiel 1999, p. 415, cat. no. MP 5.