Lot 474: Philip van Dijk (1680-1753)

Portrait of a gentleman and his wife making music in an interior: she seated, small full length at the clavichord, wearing a green silk dress, he standing small full length behind her, playing the flute, a peacock perched on a cello leaning against a chair in the foreground, a page in the distance on the left with remnants of a signature lower right oil on panel 51.9 x 40.2cm. NOTES Although in a neglected state of conservation, the present picture's authenticity has been confirmed by Drs Ineke Wansink on the basis of a photograph. It is to be compared with the picture of an unidentified family in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht (L. de Vries, Diamante Gedenkzuilen en Leerzaeme Voorbeelden, 1990, p.131, fig.66). Now almost forgotten, the artist was famous in his own time. J. van Gool, De Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders en Schilderessen, 1750, I, pp.440/9 records him as painter of portraits and 'kabinetstukjes' and counted him among the best painters of his own time. This was not only because of the high quality of his paintings, but also for his activity as an artdealer and for the high social status of his patrons. These were among others Van Wassenaer and Van Schuylenburgh in The Hague and Landgraf Wilhelm VIII of Hessen-Cassel, to whom Van Dijk became court painter. See the portrait of Landgraf Carl von Hessen - Cassel and his family, signed and dated 1725, now in the Gem„ldegalerie Alte Meister in Cassel (L.de Vries, op.cit., p.130, fig.65) and Portrait of Landgraf Wilhelm von Hessen-Cassel of 1736, also in the Gem„ldegalerie Alte Meister, Cassel (B.Schnackenburg, Gem„ldegalerie Alte Meister, Gesamtkatalog, 1996, p.113, no.GK328, plate 232). In the latter's capacity Van Dijk also helped in making major acquisitions for the Kasseler picture gallery.