Jacobus Vrel

Possibly Count Lochocki, Nakel an der Netze (Naklo nad Notecia), formerly Pomerania, Northern Poland;

H. Müller, Nakel;

M. Müller, Weimar, 1935;

Anonymous sale, Geneva, Moos, 6 May 1950, lot 57, for CHF 1,800;

With C.E. Duits, London, by whom sold to De Boer in May 1951;

With P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1951, by whom sold to Brod in October 1951;

Mr and Mrs Alfred Brod, London, 1952–53;

With Alfred Brod, London, 1956 and presumably earlier;

Sidney J. van der Bergh, Wassenaar, by 1959 until at least 1972;

Hans J. de Koster, Wassenaer;

By whom sold, London, Christie's, 30 November 1979, lot 69, for £50,000;

Heinz-Jürgen Krücken, Krefeld (by whom sent on consignment to Charles Roelofsz, Amsterdam, 1988, but returned);

Thence by descent.

E. Plietzsch, ‘Jacobus Vrel und Esaias Boursse’, in Zeitschrift für Kunst, 3, 1949, pp. 252–53, reproduced p. 252, fig. 132;

J. Bruyn, in Art and Style, Paris 1950, no. 17, reproduced;

H.W. Alings, ‘Een oud stadshoekje’, in Ons Amsterdam, September 1951, p. 222;

E. Plietzsch, Holländische und Flämische Maler des 17. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1960, p. 81, reproduced pl. 135 (as private collection, London);

A.B de Vries (ed.), Verzameling Sidney J. van der Bergh, Wassenaer 1968, (unpaginated), no. 64, reproduced;

J. Postma, Jacobus Vrel, de vraag naar zijn herkomst en oeuvrecatalogus, Doctoral Diss., Leiden 1982, p. 80, no. A 13, p. 132, no. D 6;

E.A. Honig, ‘Looking in (to) Jacob Vrel’, in Yale Journal of Criticism, vol. II, no. 1, 1989, pp. 37–38, 43, 48, reproduced fig. 1;

E. Mai, ‘Wer war Jacobus Vrel. Hypothesen zum sogenannten "Vermeer der Armen"’, in Kölner Museumsbulletin, 4, 2003, pp. 61, 66–67, reproduced fig. 20;  

B. Ebert, C. Tainturier and Q. Buvelot, Jacobus Vrel, Munich 2021, p. 207, no. 7, reproduced p. 159, no. 7.

Few artists have proved so much of an enigma as Jacobus Vrel. His name is virtually all we know about him. Dated works are known from between 1654 and 1662, but we do not know when or where he was born, what or where his training was, where he lived and worked, and when or where he died.¹ Around forty paintings by him are known, and these are almost evenly divided between street scenes such as this one and interiors, usually with a single female figure. The interiors are sparse, but from their architecture they appear to be high-ceilinged well-to-do town houses, possibly in The Netherlands, but equally plausibly from northern Germany.

His townscapes are if anything more enigmatic and mysterious. They are nearly all views down streets of brick-built houses some, as here, partly whitewashed, and often including shops, such as the one to the right here with the sign of a key, perhaps a locksmith. The roads are usually paved with boulders, sometimes aligned to direct the flow of rainwater: here they are aligned under the shelter over the doorway of the house to the right; with larger rocks to protect the corners of buildings from passing cartwheels: also seen here. They are typically peopled with townsfolk, often including, as here a woman in a red top and black skirt, and men in broad-brimmed hats.

Vrel always gives the viewer the sense that he is in the street, but as an observer, not a participant. It is perhaps this characteristic, also found in Vermeer’s street scenes, that have led some to assume that Vrel was also from Delft. There is however no evidence for this. Because his street scenes are so plausible, they appear to be readily identifiable, but they are not. While the architecture appears at first glance to be Dutch, Vrel’s urban architecture is more likely to be drawn from towns further east, across the German border and perhaps in Westphalia or Friesland, conceivably in Flanders, but certainly in the flat lands of north-western Europe where brick predominates as a building material (many include Capuchin monks, suggesting we are in Catholic lands, not post-Reformation Holland). Vrel usually curbs the viewer’s hopes of recognizing his surroundings (which in any event are probably imaginary, or at least capriccios) by closing off the view, sometimes with a closing building with an archway, but more often, as here, with a large building flanking a sharp curve of the street to the right – giving the impression that Vrel does not want us to see further because he does not want us guessing where we might be. It is tempting to think that Vrel was not merely an enigma, but a willful one.

So far attempts to place streets in Vrel’s townscapes in relation to one another in pursuit of topography have proved fruitless (it has for example been suggested – entirely incorrectly – that this is the Olofssteeg in Amsterdam) but in some paintings we appear to be looking down the same street but in opposing directions.² His skies, visible above and between the buildings, are typically grey, but they are probably greyer now than when he painted them, due to the natural degradation of the blue pigment of smalt.

¹ Elizabeth Honig’s monographic manuscript article was appropriately titled: E.A. Honig, Everything there is to know about… Jacob Vrel, Ms, RKD, The Hague, 25 March 1985. The sum of all current knowledge about Vrel is to be found in the recently published exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonné by Bernd Ebert, Cecile Tainturier and Quentin Buvelot (B. Ebert et al. 2021).

² The identification was proposed by Ailings (Ailings 1951).