Govert Flinck

This depiction of Venus and Cupid is an exciting discovery and addition to the known œuvre of Govert Flinck, datable – on stylistic grounds – to circa 1652. Several contemporary works by Flinck relate to this painting, namely a drawing of that date, in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, in which the pose of the reclining female nude relates almost exactly to Venus here.¹ The treatment of the drapery may be compared directly with that in Flinck's Bathsheba kneeling before David, dated 1651, in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.²

Flinck produced a number of depictions of Venus and Cupid, or Cupid alone, around 1650. The figure of Cupid here is most comparable to that of the Sleeping Cupid dated 1652, in Schloss Caputh, Potsdam.³ Another painting of the subject, likewise from 1652, today in Schloss Oranienburg (inv. no. GK I 2273), also shares many characteristics with this work, such as the smooth rendering of the flesh defined by graphic contours and outlines – though the present painting appears to be Flinck's only representation of the goddess asleep.

We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for suggesting the attribution to Flinck on the basis of a digital image, and to Tom van der Molen for endorsing the attribution following first-hand inspection of the work. The painting will be included in Van der Molen's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

¹ Inv. no. Z. 365; https://rkd.nl/explore/images/70558

² Inv. no. NGI 64; http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/9486/bathshebas-appeal-to-david

³ Inv. no. GK I 50916; https://rkd.nl/explore/images/279392