Lot 72: The Agony in the Garden

Jacob van Loo (Sluis 1614-1670 Paris)
The Agony in the Garden
signed 'J.v.Loo' (lower right)
oil on panel
18 7/8 x 24 3/8 in. (48 x 62 cm.)

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw , 9 September 2000 -
7 January 2001.
's-Hertogenbosch. Noordbrabants Museum, van Passie tot Pasen, Lijdenvoorstellingen in de Nederlanden 1450-1900 , 13 February- 20 April 2002.

Private collection; Sotheby's, New York, 14 October 1998, lot188.

Van Loo is recorded as living in Amsterdam from 1642. Though initially a painter of genre scenes, it was here that he established his reputation as a portrait painter, receiving eminient commissions from, for example, Willem Frederik, the stadholder of Friesland. In 1654, the poet Jan Vos expressed his admiration for the artist, ranking him alongside such artists as Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck and Ferdinand Bol. His paintings evoke a classicist mood reminiscent of the French master Nicolas Poussin, and endeavour to represent an idealised concept of beauty.