The Dealer's Eye | London

The Dealer's Eye | London

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 28. JACOB VAN LOO  |  VENUS AND ADONIS.

Property from Fergus Hall, London

JACOB VAN LOO | VENUS AND ADONIS

Lot Closed

June 25, 01:26 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 40,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from Fergus Hall, London

JACOB VAN LOO

Sluis 1614 - 1670 Paris

VENUS AND ADONIS


signed lower left: I.V.Loo

oil on canvas

unframed: 58 x 47.6 cm.; 22⅞ x 18¾ in.

framed: 77.2 x 67 cm.; 30⅜ x 26⅜ in.


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Private collection, Switzerland;

Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Fischer, 26 November 2014, lot 1028.

"This is a beautiful picture, which reveals Van Loo’s unabashed delight in depicting rich textures such as the blue and russet fabrics and the gorgeous bling of Venus’ gilded chariot. Yet these are homely Dutch Gods and Heroes in a pellucid Dutch sylvan setting."


George Gordon


The subject of this painting derives from Book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphoses: Venus, goddess of love, having fallen passionately in love with Adonis, god of beauty and desire, warns him of the dangers of the hunt and begs him not to go (an episode famously depicted by Titian).1 Here, Van Loo depicts the moment at which Venus, with Cupid at her side, discovers Adonis lying slain by a wild boar, her worst fears confirmed. This painting exemplifies Van Loo's skill in depicting richly-coloured mythological scenes and sensual, classicised nudes – a talent that was recognised during the artist's own lifetime. The contemporary chronicler Arnoud Houbraken wrote that Van Loo excelled at ‘painting nudes, and female nudes in particular’.2


It is not known who taught Van Loo to paint, but it is likely that he trained in Amsterdam, where he certainly was by 1642 and where he remained until 1660, when he fled to Paris, following a fatal altercation with a wine merchant.




1 https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/venus-and-adonis/bc9c1e08-2dd7-44d5-b926-71cd3e5c3adb

2 A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, Amsterdam, 1718–21 (rev. ed., The Hague 1753; reprinted, Amsterdam 1980), vol. 3, p. 172.