Dirck van Baburen

Commissioned by Peter van Hardenbroeck (1593-1656/58), Utrecht, in 1623;
By whom bequeathed to his lawyer, Jan de Wijs, Utrecht;
Private collection, Toulouse, 1941;
Private collection.

Denver, Art Museum, Baroque Art: Era of Elegance, 3 October - 15 November 1971, (reproduced in the catalogue p. 87);
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Nieuw Licht op de Gouden Eeuw, 13 November 1986 - 12 January 1987, no. 37;
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, February - 12 April 1987, no. 37;
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Het Gedroomde Land: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, 29 May - 29 August 1993, cat. no. 4;
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Saints and Sinners, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers, 27 September - 13 December 1998, no. 5, (reproduced p. 74).

 

G. Isarlo, Caravage et le caravagisme européen, vol. II, Aix-en-Provence 1941, p. 72  (subject wrongly identified as "Herminie et le Berger");
E. Schleier, 'A Lost Baburen Rediscovered,' in Burlington Magazine, CXIV, 836, November 1972, p. 787, note 5;
L.J. Slatkes, 'Additions to Dirck van Baburen,' in Album Amicorum J.G. van Gelder, The Hague 1973, pp. 267-268; 272, notes 6-11, reproduced fig. 2;
A. McNeil Kettering, 'The Batavian Arcadia: Pastoral Themes in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley), vol. I, 1974,  pp. 217-220, vol. II, p. 444, notes 8, 11, Appendix, pp. 501, 561;
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford 1979, p. 17, reproduced on dust-jacket;
C. Brown in A. Blankert et al., Gods, Saints & Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C. 1980 - 1981, p. 110;
A. McNeil Kettering, The Dutch Arcadia, Pastoral Art and Its Audience in the Golden Age, Montclair, New Jersey 1983, p. 164, under note 19, pp. 174, 189;
P. Janssen, 'Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671), schilder uit Utrecht' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht), 1984, p. 52;
C. Brown, Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exhibition catalogue, Philadephia 1984, p. 130;
M.A.H. te Poel, 'De Granida en Daifilo voorstellingen in de Nederlandse schilderkunst in de 17de eeuw' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rijskuniversiteit, Utrecht), 1986, pp.17, 21-23, 50;
J.A.L. de Meyere, `Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten. Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw,' in Antiek, 21, 1987, pp. 345, 347, reproduced pl. 7;
A. Blankert & L.J. Slatkes, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, exhibition catalogue, Braunschweig 1987, pp. 24, 33, 188-190, no. 37, reproduced p. 189;
D.E.A. Faber, 'Dirck van Baburen, His Commissioner and His Motifs,' in R. Klessmann (ed.), Hendrick ter Brugghen und die Nachfolger Caravaggios in Holland: Beiträge eines Symposions...im Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, vom 23. bis 25. März 1987, Braunschweig 1988, pp. 143-149, passim, reproduced p. 142;
J.A.L. de Meyere, "Granida en Daifilo" (1625) van Gerard van Honthorst, Utrecht 1988, pp. 20-21, reproduced plate 19;
B. Nicolson (L. Vertova ed.), Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1989, p. 53, reproduced vol. III, fig. 1070;
P. Huys Janssen, Rembrandt's Academy, exhibition catalogue, The Hague (Hoogsteder and Hoogsteder) 1992, p. 266, cited under no. 37, p. 268, note 2, reproduced p. 268, fig. 37a;
Agnew's 175th Anniversary, exhibition catalogue, London (Agnew's) 1992, under no. 4;
Dutch and Flemish Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, London (Johnny van Haeften)1992, under no. 3;
P. van den Brink & J. de Meyere, Het Gedroomde Land: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exhibition catalogue, Utrecht 1993, pp. 21, 24, 28 (n. 27), 29, 30 (and n. 28), 56, 58 (and n. 2), 87-91, no. 4, pp. 92 (under no. 5), 163, 164 (under no. 25A and n. 6), 192 (under no. 33), 231 (under no. 44), 241 (under no. 46); and p. 313, Appendix 2, no. 2, reproduced p. 88;
H. Bussers in Le Musée caché. À la découverte des réserves, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1994, pp. 65-66, under no. 20, reproduced p. 66;
L.J. Slatkes, 'Baburen, Dirck (Jaspersz.) van,' in The Dictionary of Art, vol. III, London, 1996, p. 8;
L.M. Helmus in Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, San Francisco 1997-1998, pp. 309, 430, note 3, reproduced p. 309, fig. 1.

"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 fairly recent lining and strong older stretcher. The restoration is also fairly recent and has preserved the vibrant, juicy texture of the brushwork. The top edge has been rather battered in the past, with a horizontal tear about six inches long in the upper left corner, and another similar horizontal just below on the left edge, which has varying stretches of old retouched damage, sometimes intruding a little way into the main picture and the left base corner is also quite battered, as is the right base corner. The right edge may be rather better preserved further up but with more nearer the base. There is scattered retouching in the right base corner and around the signature but much of this remains alright as far as it was possible to see (in the warehouse). It is in the background that the warm ground emerges most visibly, and naturally much of the quite lightly painted landscape surrounding the figures has sunk into the ground in places, especially the thinner glazes of the brown foreground and foliage above, but also the distant blue of the sky, with a certain amount of wear mainly in the browns. However in the denser browns for instance of the hair there is beautifully rich unworn paint. The magnificent figures have remained utterly present and substantial, with strong, luminous brushwork. There are various past accidental losses but the flow of the denser paint has been finely maintained, sometimes with the help of good retouching it has to be said where there has been an actual loss, but there is no strengthening needed generally and retouching is confined to individual losses, with the rich surrounding paint entirely intact and unabraided. Granida's chest has a few small retouchings, minor retouching on Daifilo's cheek but quite large retouched damages across his shoulder blades however his back remains impressively integrated and fine. There are broad retouched flaking losses in his white loin cloth, with some fracturing in the lovely surrounding fur. The shepherd boy on the left is largely well preserved, with a long retouching in his neck, a little around his far eye and in his hair, and a few others in the heads of his animals. The central horizontal seam has a certain number of retouchings along its length and Daifilo's shadowy chest and dark central arm has some fractures retouched. The central yellow drapery and much of the blue drapery is splendidly intact, with some thinness in the shadows and one or two scars in the lower brown drapery. The forehead of the sheep at lower left has a brief knock, but is otherwise finely preserved, as is the great horse up above. Daifilo's shadowy leg has rather a long patch of retouching, while Granida's leg on the right has a single retouched damage. The Caravaggiesque feet are splendidly intact. The restoration has preserved the essential richness and exuberance of the painting, in texture and substance. 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 monumental canvas, in which the shepherd Daifilo kneels before the Persian princess Granida, is the earliest treatment of this subject in western Art and it fomented a surge of pastoral and literary-based works in Netherlandish painting throughout the ensuing decades. The subject is taken from Act One, Scene Three of Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's Granida, completed in manuscript in 1605 and first published in 1615, just eight years before this painting was executed. Granida, daughter of the King of Persia, has lost her way out hunting, stumbling into Daifilo and Dorilea, pastoral lovers exchanging cross words. Baburen chooses the moment when Granida has revealed her identity to Daifilo who, having spurned his former lover Dorilea now cowering in the background, kneels before the princess offering her a bowl of water. The two fall immediately in love, he follows her to court and, after several further twists and turns in the story, the pair escape to lead a sweet pastoral life together. This subject was tackled soon after by a host of the leading artists in the Netherlands, notably by the so-called Utrecht Caravaggisti whose leading master, Gerrit van Honthorst, treated a later episode of the play in 1625 in a work now in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.¹

Baburen repeated the composition, or parts of it, on at least two further occasions, the only intact version being unsigned and predominantly painted by the artist's studio (Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels).²  Of the third version, only two separate fragments remain; one depicting Granida was sold London, Christie's, 25 April 2001, lot 53, while the other depicts the shepherdess Dorilea.

Baburen painted the present work shortly after his return from Italy where he had been since circa 1611 when he completed his apprenticeship with Paulus Moreelse in Utrecht. Although he is documented in several Italian cities, such as Parma (1615), he appears to have spent much of his time in Rome and it was there that he executed his most important works, often with the collaboration of David de Haen (d. 1622). The commission he received for the Pietà Chapel of S. Pietro in Montorio, which he completed between 1615-20, should be considered the apex of his career in Italy. Just as his Entombment, which is still in situ on the altar of the chapel there, reveals Baburen's close study of Caravaggio and in particular the latter's own treatment of that subject (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana), so too does the present work, specifically in the kneeling Daifilo whose soiled feet pointing out at the viewer and dramatic lighting recall the beggars of Caravaggio's Madonna di Loreto (Sant'Agostino, Rome). With the present work Baburen thus brought back to the north his Italian learning, adapting it to his newly invented pastoral themes and, in so doing, initiating a new language of Netherlandish painting that would be a dominant force throughout the ensuing decades.

The painting will be included in the forthcoming monograph on the artist currently in preparation by
Professor Wayne E. Franits.

A note on the Provenance:
The painting is almost certainly identifiable with an entry from the last will and testament of a Dutch Nobleman, Pieter van Hardenbroeck, from 1656.³  Hardenbroeck, who left the painting to his lawyer Jan de Wijs, probably commissioned it to commemorate his love for Agnes van Hanxelaer, who he married in 1628, and Leonard J. Slatkes has in fact proposed that Hardenbroeck himself was the model for the figure of Daifilo.⁴

1.  See L.M. Helmus, 1997-98, pp. 307-309, reproduced fig. 308.
2.  See H. Bussers, 1994, reproduced p. 64.
3.   Will drawn up by G. Vastert on 8 May 1656; original document in Utrecht, Municipal Archives, Ms. No. U 021 a 022; published with English translation in D.E.A. Faber, 1988, p. 143, note 2.
4.  See Slatkes, 1973.