Jacob Jordaens

Fernand Stuyck, Antwerp;
His sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 7-8 December 1960, lot 68;
Bought by the present owner on the advice of R.-A. d'Hulst before 1978.

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Jordaens in Belgisch bezit, 1978, no. 18;
Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Rubens and his Time (title in Japanese),1982, no. 16;
Taichung,Taiwan Museum of Art,  The Golden Age of  Flemish Painting, 1988, no.38;
Antwerp, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), 27 March-27 June 1993, no. A 63.

M. Vandenven, Jordaens in Belgisch bezit, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1978, p. 55, no. 18, reproduced;
R.-A. d'Hulst, `Jordaens Drawings: Supplement I', in Master Drawings, vol. XVIII, no. 4, Winter 1980, p. 366, under no. A193a;
R.-A. d'Hulst,  Jacob Jordaens, London 1982, p. 181, reproduced p. 185, fig. 153;
A. Balis, in The Golden Age of Flemish Painting, exhibition catalogue, Taichung 1988, p. 109, no. 38, reproduced;
M. Vandenven, in R.-A. d'Hulst, N. de Poorter & M. Vandenven, Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), exhibition catalogue, Antwerp 1993, p. 202, no. A63, reproduced facing page.

 

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a firm fairly recent lining and older stretcher. There has not been any recent restoration, apart from a few touches around the left outline of the black cap. The central areas of the figure are strong and substantially well preserved, especially the main lighter areas of the head itself, the sleeve and the details of the bagpipe. The background has had damages in the upper right area, and the side edges have bands of retouching, with less at the base edge. The darker background seems to have been reinforced probably in the nineteenth century, along with a few other minor dark touches in the curls of the hair on the neck and temple on the left and between the fingers, and it is possible that the underlying background may be thin. An apparent pentiment in the hat has been touched out with some strengthening of the black over the red upper cap. The central brushwork of the head and hands is beautifully strong and undamaged in the lighter areas, with some old wear in the shadowy far side of the head, around the far eye and in the interstices around the mouth where the finer films of paint were naturally more vulnerable. A pentiment down the side of the hand has been touched out, and there is a patch of retouched wear in the wrist and on the upper curve of white drapery nearby, but both the hands and the sleeve itself are strong and finely preserved. 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."

This self-portrait, depicting the painter at the age of about fifty, playing the Flemish pipes (doedelsack), is generally dated circa 1640-45.  His features can easily be recognised, since we have a good idea of what he looked like from a number of painted, drawn and engraved portraits, including the self-portrait showing him at a slightly younger age (painted circa 1640) in Munich, Alte Pinakothek.¹

Jordaens incorporated his likeness in this picture and in another of similar date depicting three musicians in which he is flanked by two younger pipers, formerly in the collection of Lord Yarborough (where it was seen by Waagen in the mid-19th Century).²   A studio version of the ex-Yarborough picture, extended to the right so that the musicians accompanied by other figures are serenading a lady at a window, was formerly on the London art market.³

1.  See Vandenven, 1993, p. 242, no. A78, reproduced facing page.
2.  See Vandenven, 1993, p. 202, fig. A63a.
3.  See D'Hulst, 1980, pp. 366-7, under no. 193a, reproduced fig. 6.