Adriaen Backer

Private Collection, Great-Britain;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2005, lot 234;

Where acquired by the present owner.

Born in Amsterdam, a pupil of his uncle Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, Adriaen Backer had a successful career as a portrait painter, which did not exclude, as here, successful forays into the history painting genre.

The influence of Roman Baroque painting can be seen here: the work was produced several years after Backer’s stay in Italy during the 1660s (there is a reference to his presence in Rome in 1666).

The subject is of course inspired by the Metamorphoses and the strategy adopted by Vertumnus, god of gardens, to seduce the beautiful Pomona, goddess of fruits, by approaching her first of all as a decrepit old woman, in order to extol the virtues of love and marriage. Pomona remains indifferent at first, but yields to him when he reveals himself as a handsome young god.