Jan Berents

Gallery A. van der Meer, Amsterdam, 1973;
Gallery Henk Stokking, Amsterdam;
Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam (bears his mark, not in Lugt, on the reverse of the panel),
his sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 May 1994, lot 30

Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, Tekeningen van oude meesters. De verzameling Jacobus A. Klaver, 1993 (catalogue by Marijn Schapelhouman and Peter Schatborn), no. 105

Some craquelure, and a few very minor losses, in sky. A few more very minor losses in decorative border. Otherwise extremely good and fresh. Sold in a modern but attractive wood veneer frame.
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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."

This is one of a small group of similarly executed gouaches, all drawn within the same type of decorative border, signed and inscribed in the same distinctive manner, and some bearing dates from 1663 to 1723.  Details of the artist's life have previously remained obscure, but recently Drs. Charles Dumas has been researching this interesting figure; although his findings will soon be published, he has nonetheless been kind enough to share with us some of the information that he has discovered. 

Until now, the most significant known documentary record relating to Berents has been the page devoted to him in Christian Kramm's compendium of artists' biographies, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders...¹ Kramm describes an octavo album bearing the inscription: Handboek van den Heer Jacob Bherens, Miniatuur-schilder en Mathematicus, ter gedagteni te bewaren. 1747. 'S Haage.  A previous owner of the book had written notes on the artist inside the front cover, recording that Berents was born in Hamburg in 1679.  Dumas believes, however, that although this birth date is approximately correct, our artist was in fact born in The Hague, as the son of an immigrant from Hamburg, and was named Jan (or Johannes), rather than Jacob. 

So far, Dumas has traced 2 paintings and around 16 drawings and gouaches by Berents, to which can be added some 33 further drawings that are known only from notes in early sale catalogues and inventories. Many of these works are copies after paintings, prints, maps etc. by other artists (which perhaps explains the otherwise puzzling date of 1663, found on a gouache by Berents depicting Cleopatra and the Asp in an Elegant Interior²).    

Only four other gouaches by Berents have been sold in recent years: the aforementioned Cleopatra and the Asp in an Elegant Interior, a pastoral scene with Flora and Zephyr, dated 1718, and two landscapes, one showing a river valley with travellers, the other (dated 1742), a harvest scene.³ 

1.  Amsterdam 1857, vol. I, pp. 90-1

2.  Formerly in the collection of Otto Naumann, sold, New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2007, lot 112.  In this case, the date of 1663 could indicate when the prototype, rather than the gouache itself, was executed.

3.  The last three sold, respectively: Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 November 1998, lot 107; Amsterdam, Christie's, 3 November 2004, lot 144; Idem, 16 November 2006, lot 79