Lot 36
  • 36

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem Roelandt Savery Haarlem 1562 - 1638 Kortrijk 1576 - 1639 Utrecht

Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem
  • Venus and Adonis resting in an extensive landscape, with Cupid and hunting dogs and their quarries
  • signed with monogram and dated on the bank: CvH / 16[...]0
  • oil on oak panel

Provenance

Possibly private collection, Amsterdam, 1633;1

Anonymous sale, Berlin, Leo Spik, 18 September 1950, lot 300;

Anonymous sale, Berlin, Leo Spik, 24 November 1951, lot 265 (as 'Diana and Actaeon');

On the art market, Paris, 1969;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 24 June 1970, lot 81, for £7,000, to Lady P. Cator (as dated 1608);

With David Carritt Ltd., London, 1971;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 28 June 1974, lot 62 (as 'Mars, Venus and Cupid', datable to the early 1620s), where acquired by the late father of the present owner.

Exhibited

Madrid, Palacio de Velázquez, Pedro Pablo Rubens (1577–1640): exposición homenaje, December 1977 – March 1978, no. 127.

Literature

M. Díaz Padrón et al., Pedro Pablo Rubens (1577–1640): exposición homenaje, exh. cat., Madrid 1977, p. 138, cat. no. 127, reproduced p. 253, fig. 127 (as dated 1600);

K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678). The paintings with œuvre catalogue, Freren 1984, pp. 70–71 and 422–23, cat. no. 262, reproduced p. 423 (as Jan Brueghel the Younger);

E.J. Sluijter, De 'Heydensche Fabulen' in de noordnederlandse schilderkunst, circa 1590–1670. Een proeve van beschrijving en interpretatie van schilderijen met verhalende onderwerpen uit de klassieke mythologie, doctoral diss., Leiden 1986, pp. 39, 125 and 136, reproduced fig. 66 (as dated 1622);

P.J.J van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, 1562–1638: a monograph and catalogue raisonné, Doornspijk 1999, pp. 125, 136, and 362, cat. no. 172, reproduced plate 203.

Condition

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This painting is an unusual example of a slightly earlier smaller scene containing classical figures by Cornelis being inset into a larger landscape by Rolandt Savery. The small panel was presumably thinned and set into a specially shaped hollow in the larger oak panel. This strong main panel is made up of three sections, which have since had supporting bars fixed along the two joints behind. One further brief backing bar behind supports a short old crack (about 12cm. long) in the top right corner. The main joints have been well preserved, with some narrow old retouching near the left end of the upper joint. The crack mentioned above also has a band of retouching. Old retouching can be seen under ultra violet light in the original smaller panel, where there seems to have been some perhaps early wear in some of the modelling of the figures. The luxuriant outer Rolandt Savery landscape appears largely to be richly intact in its detail, while the inner Cornelis panel appears to have suffered slightly from wear at some point. The putto has various patches of old retouching visible dimly under UV, with other similar areas in the figure of Venus. Tiny more recent retouchings in all the figures can be seen more distinctly under UV in the thinner parts of the original modelling, such as the necks and more shaded areas of the bodies. There is also a short slanting scar (about 4cm long) to the lower right of Apollo just above his drapery on the seat. The vivid vegetation surrounding and overlapping the inner scene has also had various strengthening retouchings quite recently, in the leaves and the palm on the left side for instance. Savery vividly filled out the border to integrate the scene, with dangling roses, winding tendrils from nearby trees and even the wandering dog in the foreground. Elsewhere the landscape is very finely preserved overall. This report has not been done under laboratory conditions.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Collaborative works were not uncommon in early seventeenth-century Netherlandish art and some artists were regular partners, such as Denijs van Alsloot and Hendrick de Clerck, or Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen, but a work such as this, where one major artist has, some eight years later, taken the work of another major artist and extended it, is exceptional. The result is poetic, with the lithe, smoothly painted figures of Venus and Adonis reclining in a landscape busy with all the naturalistic detail we expect in Savery's best works.

This painting was first conceived as a much smaller panel, measuring 35 x 57 cm. (13 3/4  x 22 3/8  in.), extending from the figure of Cupid in the lower left corner, to Adonis' left hand in the upper right corner. This composition was enlarged considerably by Roelant Savery who extended Adonis' lance, added the cave and woods behind the couple and the deer in the lower left corner, as well as the hunting dogs and the extensive landscape.

The date of the original panel is difficult to discern, but the third figure – the least legible – most probably reads as a '1'. A date of 1610 is also loosely supported by the fact that Venus' pose here is almost identical to that of the figure of the goddess in Cornelis' Venus and Mars, in the National Museum, Warsaw, which is dated 1609.2

The extension of the panel is most likely to have occurred in 1618, when Savery worked briefly in Haarlem before moving to Utrecht later that year. Savery frequently collaborated with other artists to people his landscapes, but only one other example of a partnership with Cornelis is known: The Fall of Man, signed by Savery and dated 1618.3

1. According to information from Jan Briels, a painting described as 'Venus and Adonis', with figures by Cornelis and landscape by Savery is recorded in an Amsterdam inventory of 1633; see K.J. Müllenmeister, in Roelant Savery in seiner Zeit (1576–1639), exhibition catalogue, Cologne 1985, p. 36 (incorrectly identified with cat. no. 90 in that catalogue).

2. Inv. no. 137; see Van Thiel 1999, pp. 125 and 366, cat. no. 184, reproduced plate 201.

3. Present whereabouts unknown; see Van Thiel 1999, pp. 136, 183 and 292, cat. no. 3, reproduced plate 236.