CIRCLE OF JACOB ADRIAENSZ BACKER | PORTRAIT OF A MAN SMOKING A PIPE (THE SENSE OF SMELL)

With J. Vermeulen, Amsterdam, 1919;

With Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, acquired from the above 1919, stock number 700 (as the Smoker) until May 1940 when Aryanised by Reichsmarschall Herman Göring and transferred to Alois Miedl;

Anonymously sold by Alois Miedl, Munich, Kunstversteigerungshaus Adolf Weinmüller, 30 January 1941, lot 2, for RM 8.000 (as portrait of Brouwer, by Jacob Backer);

There acquired by Bank Lützig, Amsterdam;

Recovered by Monuments Officers and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point, November 20, 1945 (inventory #15512);

Returned to the Dutch Government, 18 June 1946;

Mr. Duijvedijk, Scheveningen;

Possibly, anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Frederick Muller, 13-19 March 1951, lot 2 (as J.A. Backer);

Possibly, anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 December 1960, lot 115 (as Backer);

Daan Cevat, Guernsey;

With W.S. ten Bosch, The Hague, 1965;

Morris I. Kaplan, Chicago;

By whose estate sold, London, Sotheby's, 12 June 1968, lot 6 (as Jacob Adriaensz. Backer);

Stuart Kaplan;

By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 16 June 1977, lot 29 (as Jacob Adriaensz. Backer);

There acquired by a private collector;

Restituted to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker in 2020.

K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, Berlin 1926, pp. 30 and 82, cat. no. 70, reproduced, plate 19;

K. Bauch, Der frühe Rembrandt und seine Zeit; Studien zur geschichtlichen Bedeutung seines Frühstils, Berlin 1960, p. 252, note 22;

H. van Hall, Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars. Repertorium, Amsterdam 1963, p. 51, cat. no. 300-15 (as a Portrait of Brouwer);

A. Czobor, Rembrandt and his Circle, Budapest 1969, under cat. no. 22;

I. Geismeier, Die Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Geschichte der Sammlung von Ihren Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart und wissenschaftlicher Katalog der holländischen und flämischen Gemälde des 17.Jahrhunderts in dieser Sammlung, Dissertation Humboldt Universität, Berlin 1972, vol. II, p. 9;

I. Geismeier, Holländische und flämische Gemälde des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts im Bode-Museum, Berlin 1976, p. 12;

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. V, Landau-Pfalz 1983, p. 3078, cat. no. 1992, reproduced p. 3121 (as Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, datable to circa 1633-1635);

I. Ember and M. Chiarini, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck: Italiensehnsucht nordischer Barockmaler-Meisterwerke aus dem Museum der bildenden Künste Budapest, exhibition catalogue, Wuppertal 1995, p. 86;

E. van de Wetering, et. al., The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt, Amsterdam 2001, exhibition catalogue, p. 382, note 1 (as Jacob Adriaensz. Backer);

S. Boyer and F. Guillaume, Peintures flamandes,hollandaises et allemandes du Musée Calvet, Avignon, Avignon 2006, pp. 22, 25;

P. van den Brink, Jacob Backer (1608/9-1651), Digital Catalogue, Zwolle 2008, cat. no. C32, reproduced (under section of rejected paintings).

This painting of a man smoking a pipe—a representation of the allegory of smell—seems to be a period copy after a now lost original by Jacob Adriaensz Backer that once formed part of a series of five works, each illustrating one of the senses. The original series included Backer’s Old Man Holding a Mirror Fragment (Allegory of Sight)¹ and his Drinker (Allegory of Taste),² both of which are today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, as well as probably his Violin Player (Allegory of Hearing) in the Szépmüveszéti Múzeum, Budapest.³ His Allegory of Touch has not been located, and his Allegory of Smell is known only through the present copy. This series by Backer seems to have proven successful. In addition to the present painting, copies are known of the Allegory of Taste and the Allegory of Hearing,⁴ suggesting that there were likely several complete series of senses made after Backer’s original set made by members of his workshop, circle, later imitators.  

Throughout the twentieth century, this portrait was published by art historians such as Bauch and Sumowski as an original work by Jacob Adriaensz Backer, and at times it was supposed that the model for the young man smoking was Adriaen Brouwer.  

1. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A29. Oil on panel, 71.5 by 60 cm, inv. no. 935B. http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?

service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=871547&viewType=detailView

2. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A30. Oil on panel, 71.5 by 60 cm, inv. no. 935A. http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=870501&viewType=detailView 

3. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A31. Oil on panel, 73 by 62 cm, inv. no. 68.11. https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/the-violinist-the-allegory-of-hearing/

4. At least three versions are known of the Allegory of Taste, one by Backer's workshop in a private collection and three others by various hands. See Van den Brink 2008 under cat. no. A30 (a,b,c). Of the Allegory of Hearing, one workshop copy was offered at the Dorotheum, Vienna, 21 October 2014, lot 78, and another later copy on the market in France in 2012.