Jacques des Rousseaux

With French and Co., New York, 1956;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 3 June 1988, lot 37 (as Gerrit Willemsz. Horst);
Anonymous sale ('Private Collection'), London, Christie's, 10 July 1992, Lot 13;
There purchased by the present owner. 

Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Rembrandt and his Pupils, 16 November - 30 December 1956, no. 52 (as by Gerrit Willemsz. Horst).

W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. V, New York 1981, p. 2838 (as Gerrit Willemsz. Horst);
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. II, Landau 1983, p. 1390, cat. no. 904, reproduced, p. 1394 (as Gerrit Willemsz. Horst);
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. IV, Landau 1983, p. 2506, under cat. no. 1675b (as Gerrit Willemsz. Horst);
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. V, 1983, p. 3057;
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. VI, Landau 1994, reproduced in color, p. 3666 (as an Allegory of Music);
C. Vogelaar (ed.), Rembrandts Mythe en Moeder Werkelijkheid, exhibition catalogue, Leiden 2005-2006, pp. 198 -199 under cat. no. 62, , illustrated in color.  

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has an old glue lining which presents the surface well. The painting seems to be clean and has not been overcleaned. There are hardly any retouches. There is possibly slight thinness in the sheet music on the left side, but the work is otherwise in excellent state. The painting can be hung as is.
"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."

Little is known of the life of Jacques des Rousseaux but that he was an artist active in Leiden during the 1630s. His career was brief; he is believed to have been born in Tourcoing around 1600, his dated paintings were executed between 1630 and 1636, and he died in March 1638. During these short years des Rousseaux is thought to have spent some time under Rembrandt’s tutelage around 1628, and like his fellow pupils such as Gerrit Dou, Ferdinand Bol and Isaak de Jouderville, he learnt to almost perfectly repeat his master's character heads, called tronies, and came so close in reproducing Rembrandt’s tonality, chromatics, and his sitters' meditative moods that modern scholarship continually faced the difficult task of separating the works of Rembrandt from those of his skilled pupils. Such was the connection to Rembrandt that the old man holding the music score is the so-called father of Rembrandt, a Leiden model who was used in the years around 1629-31 by both Rembrandt and Jan Lievens (see for example the Bust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur Cap in the The Tyrolean State Museum, Innsbruck). Furthermore, this work was long attributed to yet another Rembrandt pupil, Gerrit Willemsz. Horst, until cleaning following its 1988 sale (see Provenance) revealed des Rousseaux's signature and 1631 dating.  Des Rousseaux's oeuvre consists of only a handful of paintings which are predominantly depictions of single figures, bust-length, atmospherically lit with a painterly and detailed surface. This, however, is a rare multi-figural composition which can be directly compared with another similarly composed picture from 1631, his Men and Women Making Music, sold by Sotheby's New York, 30 January 1997, lot 21. Both pictures feature the identical patterned table rug, as well the same male model used as the lute player in the present example, and the lone gentleman in the 1997 example.