Master Paintings & Sculpture Part I
Master Paintings & Sculpture Part I
Property from a Private Collection
Jan Lievens
Bust of a man with cap and gold chain
This lot has been withdrawn
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection
Jan Lievens
Leiden 1607 - 1674 Amsterdam
Bust of a man with cap and gold chain
oil on panel
panel: 21 7/8 by 15 1/2 in.; 55.6 by 39.6 cm.
framed: 28 by 21 1/2 in.; 71.1 by 54.6 cm.
With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1925 (as Jan Lievens?);
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 14 January 1993, lot 61;
Where acquired by the present collector.
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt Schüler, Landau/Pfalz 1994, vol. VI, p. 3518, reproduced in color, p. 3536 (as a a copy after a lost original from circa 1635-40);
D. J. Lurie, Jan Lievens: The Sacrifice of Isaac, exhibition catalogue, Tel Aviv 1998, cat. no. 7, reproduced;
B. Schnackenburg, Jan Lievens, friend and rival of the young Rembrandt, Petersberg 2016, pp. 40, 82, 86, 102, 104, 292, cat. no. 109, reproduced in color.
This loose and confidently drawn depiction of a bearded man with gold chain can be dated to circa 1629-32. During this time Jan Lievens resided in Antwerp and enjoyed a particularly productive period of great artistic development. The evidence for dating this work is based on comparison with similar applications of paint in other works, which similarly employ this highly expressive and "rough manner," most notably Lievens' Capuchin monk with a rosary, dated 1629, belonging to the Marquess of Lothian.1 The subject would appear to be the same model used for the seated figure in Lievens’ Feast of Esther from circa 1625 (Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art), as well as that depicted in a similarly formatted tronie sold New York, Sotheby's, 04 June 2015, lot 91.
The fanciful studies from life, often exotically costumed, that Lievens, Rembrandt, and their followers painted in large numbers are not portraits as such and are known as tronies, the term that was used for them by at least 1630. Those depicting old bearded men are sometimes known generically as prophets; here old age is associated with wisdom, not folly. Constantijn Huygens' autobiographical account of 1629-31 records that a number of Lievens' tronies had already found their way into prominent collections, including those of the Stadtholder Prince Frederik Hendrik, his treasurer, Thomas Brouart, the artist Jacques de Gheyn III, and the Amsterdam tax collector Nicolaas Sohier.2 Huygens continues: "There are works of inestimable value and unrivalled artistry. May their maker be preserved for us in the length of days".3
1. Schnackenburg 2016, p. 292.
2. See V.C. Treanor, in A.K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Lievens. A Dutch Master Rediscovered, exhibition catalogue, New Haven & London 2008, p. 120, under no. 20.
3. Treanor 2008, p. 287, appendix.