Lot 57
  • 57

Abraham Janssens the Elder

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Abraham Janssens the Elder
  • Saint Jerome
  • oil on canvas
  • 74 5/8  by 58 5/8  in.; 189.5 by 149 cm.

Provenance

A Carthusian Convent in Lier, Belgium;
Private collection, Lower Austria;
By whom sold, Dorotheum, Vienna, 18 March 1992, lot 58 (as Janssens);
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Condition

The following condition report has been provided by Hamish Denwar Fine Art Conservation, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London, England, SW1Y 6BU, +44 (0) 20 7930 4004, hamish@hamishdewar.co.uk, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas has an old lining which is still ensuring a generally sound structural support although there is an overall pattern of slightly raised craquelure which is secure but should be noted. There are faint horizontal and vertical stretcher bar lines, the horizontal being slightly more pronounced than the vertical. The paint surface has a slightly uneven varnish layer with a number of minor surface abrasions within the varnish layers. Revarnishing would therefore be beneficial to ensure a more even surface coating. Inspection under ultraviolet light shows a number of what appear to be quite recent retouchings, the majority of which are just small scattered areas which appear to cover old losses. The most concentrated retouchings are along the central horizontal stretcher bar lines, on Saint Jerome's right foot and in the red draperies where there are some larger retouchings, particularly a vertical band of inpainting running up from the lower horizontal framing edge. There is an area that fluoresces more faintly than those above in the background above Saint Jerome's head. This measures approximately 6 x 8 cm. There may well be older retouchings beneath opaque varnish layers that are not easily identifiable under ultraviolet light. The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and the only work that might be required is revarnishing.
"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."

Catalogue Note

Like many of his contemporaries, Janssens travelled to Italy, where he was recorded in Rome in 1598 and 1601. He was strongly influenced throughout the rest of his career by what he saw there. His monumental figures, such as the present strikingly sculptural Saint Jerome, are strikingly Michelangelesque, more so than the works of any of his countrymen. He also certainly fell under the spell of Caravaggio. Janssens' Caravaggism, the dominant facet of his mature style, probably underwent repeated renewal through the prism of fellow Northern artists returning from Rome over the succeeding decades. The present highly Caravaggesque painting, for example, with its dramatic diagonal lighting, strong chiaroscuro and almost totally dark background, is particularly close to Caravaggio's Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness in Kansas City, which dates from circa 1604, although Janssens returned to his native Antwerp in circa 1602.1  The present composition evidently enjoyed considerable publicity, since it is known in several other autograph versions: in The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia;2 in The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest;3 in Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire;4 and in a work sold at Sotheby's in New York, 25 January 2017, lot 27, for $400,000 hammer price.5

1. Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, inv. no. 52-25; see E.W. Rowlands, Italian paintings 1300-1800. The collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City 1996, pp. 215-26, cat. no. 25, reproduced in colour p. 217.
2. Inv. no. 71.459, 152 by 118 cm.; see D. Weller, Saints and Sinners, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and his Dutch and Flemish Followers, exh. cat., Norfolk 1998, p. 152, cat. no. 26, reproduced. 
3. Inv. no. 731, 181 by 141 cm.; see Weller 1998, p. 154, under cat. no. 26, reproduced fig. 1.
4. 176.5 by 141 cm.; photograph kept in the Witt Library, The Courtauld Institute, London.
5. 190 by 149.5 cm.