EDWAERT COLLIER | TROMPE-L’ŒIL WITH A PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS

With J. Rosenthal, Amsterdam, 1965;

Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 2 June 1981, lot 398, when acquired.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 128.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

E. Gemar-Költzsch et al., Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, Lingen 1995, vol. II, p. 254, cat. no. 80/14, reproduced;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 5, Stilleben und Tierstücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2004, pp. 90–93, cat. no. 14, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 121, reproduced in colour fig. 128.

This trompe l’œil depiction of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the great Dutch humanist and renaissance scholar, reproduces a print made after the famous portrait of Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger. Collier included such a print in many of his works. He was clearly fascinated by the idea of mechanical reproduction, which called into question the very role of the artist – an issue raised in his own works, designed to trick the viewer. Erasmus himself wrote on the subject of deceitful appearances, and Collier’s preoccupation with his image was undoubtedly a deliberate reference.