Indianapolis, John Herron Art Museum, Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, 1937, no. 17, reproduced in the catalogue (lent by Silberman Galleries, New York); Recklinghausen, Städtische Kunsthalle, Gesammelt im Ruhrgebiet, 1963, no. 105; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 24 January - 30 March 1970, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 24 April - 7 June 1970, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, no. 20; Amsterdam, Gallery K. & V. Waterman ( & Groningen, Groninger Museum), Rembrandt. The Impact of a Genius, 1983, no. 40; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, 10 October 1998 - 17 January 1999, Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, 19 February - 9 May 1999, Arent de Gelder (1645-1727). Rembrandts Meisterschüler und Nachfolger, no. 39; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, on loan, 1998-2009 (inv. no. Dep.625).
Literature
G. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. III, p. 334 (described as: "A man, a woman and a child, recalls Van den Eckhout, but hangs too high for positive opinion", with pencil note "AdG" in the margin of the R.K.D. copy of the book); K. Lilienfeld, "Arent de Gelder. Sein Leben und seine Kunst", in Quellenstudien zu Holländischen Kunstgeschichte, vol. IV, The Hague 1914, p. 148, no. 54 (with incorrect measurements); D.R. van Fossen, The Paintings of Aert de Gelder, unpublished dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge (Mass.) 1969, no. 70; H. Gerson, Meisterwerke der holländischen Historienmalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Essen 1969, reproduced plate 12; H. Vey, Sammlung Herbert Girardet. Holländische und flämische Meister, exhibition catalogue, Cologne 1970, (unpaginated), cat. no. 20, with colour plate; G. Jansen, in Rembrandt. The Impact of a Genius, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 1983, p. 170, cat. no. 40, reproduced in colour; W. Sumowski, Die Gemälde der Rembrandt Schüler, Landau/Pfalz 1983, vol. II, p. 1167, no. 754, reproduced in colour p. 1214; J.W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Doornspijk 1994, p. 84, no. 50, reproduced plate 50; E. Mai, in Arent de Gelder (1645-1727). Rembrandts Meisterschüler und Nachfolger, exhibition catalogue, Dordrecht-Cologne 1998, p. 212, no. 39, reproduced in colour facing page.
Provenance
Possibly Edward, 4th Viscount Irwin (1686-1714) Temple Newsam, Leeds, and if so, thence by descent to Hugo Charles Meynell Ingram (1841-1869), Temple Newsam, by 1854; His son, Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram (died 1871), Temple Newsam; His widow, Emily Charlotte Wood (daughter of the 1st Viscount Halifax), Temple Newsam; Her nephew, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood (son of Charles, 2nd Viscount Halifax), 3rd Viscount Halifax (later 1st Earl of Halifax), at Temple Newsam, by 1914, and until the sale of the house in 1922; With D. Katz, Dieren; With E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York, 1937; Private Collection, Chicago; With Frederick A. Mont (given, presumably wrongly, as A. Mond), New York, 1960; Herbert Girardet, Kettwig (1910-1972), by whom bought in 1961; Thence by descent.
Notes
Arent (or Aert) de Gelder was almost certainly Rembrandt's last pupil. He started his training in his native Dordrecht, probably around 1660, under Samuel van Hoogstraeten, who had also been a Rembrandt pupil twenty years before. (1) It is probably from Hoogstraeten that De Gelder got his characteristic warm colour scheme in which muted brown tones are nearly always enlivened by deep reds. Perhaps prompted by Hoogstraeten's departure for England in September 1662, De Gelder became apprenticed to Rembrandt in Amsterdam, where he is said to have remained for two years. (2 )Although there is no record of him in Dordrecht until 1669, it is highly likely that he left Rembrandt's workshop several years before the latter's death in 1669.
Arent de Gelder was the only painter to adhere to the Rembrandtesque tradition in the decades following Rembrandt's death. In fact, he maintained and developed his own highly personal interpretation of Rembrandt's style for the rest of his life, into the third decade of the 18th century. He was predominantly a history painter, but his portraits also reveal an adaptation of Rembrandtesque precepts. Although he is often associated with Old Testament subjects, his New Testament ones such as the present picture show the same interest in the human aspect of Bible stories: in the interaction between the depicted figures; with a greater emphasis on psychological relations than on narrative gestures. (3 ) The inter-relationship between members of a family, as here, is one that would have had an obvious appeal for him.
De Gelder might strike us to have been an exception in the course of art history: the lone standard bearer of an archetypically mid-17th century style for some 70 years after his Master's death, one who completely ignored changing pictorial conventions that were by the time of his dotage very far removed from his own. De Gelder did not depend on the sale of paintings for his livelihood however, coming from a wealthy family. Moreover, there is some evidence that he had a loyal following in Dordrecht, a city that in any case stood apart from the mainstream of Dutch painting. It is easier to deduce an enduring Dordrecht style than it is for other artistic centres: the use of warm reds and red grounds for example is to be noted in all of Rembrandt's Dordrecht pupils, but also in classicizing artists with roots in the fijnschilder tradition, such as De Gelder's approximate Dordrecht contemporary Godfried Schalcken. In any event, the pressures to conform to changing tastes would have been less compelling in Dordrecht than in other leading Dutch cities. What is particularly fascinating about De Gelder's work however is that it represents to some extent a development of Rembrandt's own late style, or at the very least a logical extension of some facets of it, interpreted by De Gelder's highly personal brush.
Most scholars locate this picture around 1700, or in the first decade of the 18th century. (4) Eduard Plietzsch however put it much earlier, to the years immediately following De Gelder's training. (5) Kurt Lilienfeld was the first to note some similarities with Rembrandt's 1645 etching of the same subject (Bartsch 58), and his observation was repeated by subsequent scholars. (6) In the etching (Fig. 1) the Virgin, cradling the Child in her right arm is turned away from a behatted Joseph who leans towards her. This arrangement of figures is unusual, and De Gelder probably did have it in mind when designing the composition of the present work.
This picture must inevitably be compared with another treatment of the same subject by De Gelder: another unsigned canvas generally dated to around the same time in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. (7) They are startlingly different in the way the subject is approached. In the present work Joseph, who looks like an elderly itinerant, leans forward gesturing to the Christ Child, who is depicted as a toddler, held up by His adoring Mother, and who raises an arm in return. In the Boston picture Joseph seems to be younger and a man of authority, who reads from the Scriptures, glancing across at the Holy Infant, who is depicted as a baby feeding at His Mother's breast. The Boston picture was in part inspired by another Rembrandt etching of the Holy Family (Bartsch 58), although this only becomes clear when the etching is reversed. An animated Christ Child as in the present picture recurs in another Holy Family from the first years of the 18th century, in Berlin, Staatliche Museen, where Joseph is depicted as a turbaned bearded figure, and Mary as a smiling mother, also wearing lavish head-gear. (8)
Provenance It is quite likely that this painting was acquired by Edward, 4th Viscount Irwin (1686-1714), perhaps on his Grand Tour of 1704-7. The fourth Viscount was the most notable collector of the Ingram family, and his purchases comprised the vast majority of the Old Master collection at Temple Newsam, near Leeds. His Grand Tour saw him travel first to Delft in Holland, en route to Italy, with his brother Rich, Thomas Worsley of Hovingham, and their tutor John Haccius. It was on this trip that he commissioned the pair of portraits by Thomas van der Wilt (1659-1733) and a series of works by Antonio Marini (1668-1725).
Unfortunately, the published extant inventories suffer from incompleteness and misattribution and there is as yet no confirmed record of this particular painting at Temple Newsam prior to Waagen's visit of 1854. Later inventories do refer to a number of copies of paintings by Rembrandt- 'Portrait of the painter', 1657, 34x26"; 'Christ in Emmaus', 1648, 33x42". It is quite likely that this work was also acquired under the nameof Rembrandt, since it was not identified as by his pupil De Gelder until the 20th) Century.
This picture remained at Temple Newsam, until 1922. From 1904 it belonged to the Hon. Edward Wood, later 3rd Viscount Halifax, who led a distinguished diplomatic and political career, becoming Viceroy of India in 1926, and subsequently Foreign Secretary from 1938-40 and British Ambassador in Washington in the crucial war years from 1940 to 1946. It is not clear if he retained this picture after the sale of Temple Newsam to Leeds Corporation in 1922, when many of the contents were dispersed.
Concerning the collector Herbert Girardet (1910-1972), who bought this picture in 1961 and in whose family it remains, please see the note to the preceding lot.
1. Most of what we know of De Gelder's early career is due to his townsman Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), who knew De Gelder personally. His biography of De Gelder was published in De Groote Schouburgh..., The Hague 1718-21. 2. According to Houbraken. 3. This is more or less how Guido Jansen put it; see literature, 1983. 4. Von Moltke and Mai both date it circa 1700-1710; while Sumowski dates it circa 1700; see literature, 1983; 1994; 1998. 5. First cited by Horst Vey, see literature, 1970. 6. See Lilienfeld under literature, 1914. Guido Jansen's observation that the similarity is limited to the use of the motif of the fruit held in Joseph's hand (in fact an earthenware bowl of food held by a handle, not a fruit) suggests that he had the Berlin picture in mind when writing about this one (see under literature, 1983). 7. Inv. no. 57.182; see von Moltke under literature, p. 84, no. 49, reproduced plates 49, 49a, 49b & colour plate XXVI. 8. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, cat. 1986, no. 806 D; see idem, p. 85, no. 51, reproduced plate 51 & colour plate XXVII.
