Abraham Bloemaert Gorinchem 1566 - 1651 Utrecht

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Phillips, 6 July 1993, lot 61, for £210,000, where acquired by the present owner.

M.G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons. Paintings and prints, Doornspijk 1993, vol. I, p. 681;
M.G. Roethlisberger, "Early Abraham Bloemaert", in Tableau, vol. 17, no. 3, December 1994, pp. 46-7, reproduced on p. 49, fig. 3;
M.G. Roethlisberger, "Abraham Bloemaert: recent additions to his paintings", in Artibus et historiae, vol. XXI, no. 41, 2000, p. 159, and p. 169, footnote 29, reproduced fig. 8.

This relatively recently discovered picture is an important addition to the early and least documented phase of Bloemaert’s career when his style was influenced by the extravagant mannerism of Spranger and Goltzius. In the structure and handling of the landscape and in the arrangement of figures as calligraphic curves across the picture plane, Miracle of the loaves relates to Bloemaert’s River Gods with Apollo and Daphne of 1592 ¹ and a variant depicting the Baptism in the Jordan, a composition known through a contemporary copy ².  The muscular nude seen from behind and his female companion holding a child also occur in the Apollo and Daphne and the Baptism, and similar figural groups, including the bearded man on the far right, appear in Judith displays the head of Holofernes to the people of 1593 ³ and in a pen and ink study for Apollo and Daphne ⁴.

The Miracle of the loaves (Jesus feed the five thousand) is described in all four gospels, but the present painting seems based on the most detailed account of the story found in John, 6:1-14. Accompanied by his disciples, Christ climbed a hillside near the shore of the sea of Galilee at Passover. He sat down and a crowd numbering five thousand gathered around him. Christ asked Philip how they might be fed, and he replied that there was not enough money to buy bread for so many. Christ took two barley loaves from a boy in the crowd, blessed them, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute. All five thousand were fed, with twelve basketfuls of bread left over. In the present painting, Christ, clad in purple, is seated in the centre of the composition, his arms extended towards Andrew, who holds out a basket full of loaves. Between them is the lad who had the five loaves and, in the distance, the sea of Galilee with tiny bathers.

This is a quintessentially mannerist painting, described by Roethlisberger as the finest of its kind by Bloemaert, and the earliest of four known representations of the theme by the artist. A second, very different composition, is preserved in an oval print by de Gheyn after Bloemaert, dated 1595 ⁵; and two other painted versions are datable considerably later, around 1630 ⁶.

The oak panel on which the canvas has been laid down is virtually identical in its bevelling and striations to panels Bloemaert is known to have painted on directly, such as Achior tied to a tree ^7_.  This would suggest that the picture was laid down at a very early date, probably by Bloemaert himself.  Along the edges of the canvases are small incisions with numbers written in black pen: left top to bottom, 1-15. Dr. Walter Kloeck of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has suggested that these numerical notations were made by the artist during the process of transferring a squared drawing on to the canvas before beginning to paint, or in preparation for a reproductive engraving or perhaps a larger version of the picture. Roethlisberger has suggested, rather, that the marks might have been made for a copy.

Bloemaert was primarily a historic painter, but also executed landscapes, still lifes and portraits.  He served his apprenticeship with Joachim Wtewal under the Utrecht painter Joos de Beer, who introduced him to the work of Anthonis Blocklandt. From 1580-83 Bloemaert was in Paris, where he studied with Hieronymous Francken the Elder. Upon returning to Holland, he settled in Utrecht, where he became a master of the guild of St. Luke in 1611. Except for a brief interlude in Amsterdam between 1591-93, Bloemaert had an enormous impact on the painters of the following generation, and counted among his students Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerrit and Willen van Honthorst, Jan van Biljert, Cornelis van Poelenburgh, and Jan van Baptist Weenix. Bloemaert’s influence was further disseminated by the many engravings made after his designs by his son Frederick and others.

1. Signed and dated 1592, oil on canvas, 127 by 180 cm.; destroyed; formerly Breslau, Schlesisches Museum der Bildenden Künste; M. G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his sons, Doornspijk 1993, vol. I, pp. 71-73, no. 21, vol. II, fig. 50.

2. oil on panel, 138.5 by 195.5 cm.; Jacksonville, Florida, Cumner Gallery of Art; M. G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his sons, Doornspijk 1993, vol. I, pp. 72-73, under no. 21, vol. II, fig. 49.

3. Signed and dated 1593, oil on canvas, 34.5 by 44.5 cm.; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 6514; Roethlisberger, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 82-84, no. 34, vol. II, fig. 69.

4. Vienna, Albertina, inv. 7997.

5. Engraving by Jacques de Gheyn, published by Jacques Razet, oval image, 227 by 290 mm., Roethlisberger, op. cit., vol. I, p. 88, vol. II, fig. 75.

6. Signed, oil on canvas, 120 by 155 cm., location unknown, Roethlisberger, op. cit., vol. I, p. 291, no. 448, vol. II, fig. 621; and signed, oil on canvas, 66.5 by 84.5 cm.; private collection, Roethlisberger, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 296-7, no. 455, vol. II, fig. 629.

7. Signed and dated 1593, oil on panel, 43.5 by 32.7 cm.; London, private collection,  Roethlisberger, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 86-87, no. 38, vol. II, colour plate III, fig. 73.