Lot 618: Willem de Poorter Holland 1608-c:a 1660 Salomos

Willem de Poorter Holland 1608-c:a 1660 Salomos avgudadyrkan. Signerad och daterad W D ..oorter 1646 Olja på pannå, 50 x 56
Signed and dated W D ..oorter 1646. Oil on panel, 50 x 56 cm.
With P. De Boer, Amsterdam, circa 1933, where bought by the ancestors of the present owners. Willem de Poorter is generally classified today as a pupil of Rembrandt, since his paintings reflect the stylistic influence of Rembrandts early history scenes of circa 1629/ 33. However, no documents exist confirming such an apprenticeship. Maybe thus that de Poorter independently developed his speciality, which was the highly refined cabinet size history painting of Biblical or mythological subjects. This beautifully preserved painting, which was last seen at de Boer circa 1933 and which has recently turned up from a Swedish private collection, is a very fine example of his art. Both in composition and style it shows de Poorter at his best, with the figures evenly and harmoniously distributed in a shallow space over the picture plane and with the fine attention for details such seen in the silver vessels and the rendering of the garments. Especially characteristic is the treatment of the light, which falls in from the left and which spreads diagonally over the figures. The subject is among the artist's favourite and is taken from I Kings XI:4. Here is recorded how King Solomon, in order to please his concubines, was persuaded to offer to pagan gods, but was eventually damned. In the painting Solomon is seen kneeling at the foot of a sculpted altar, holding a censer. One of his concubines kneels beside him pointing towards the altar, where an offering is taking place under the watchful eye of a high priest. The foreign goddess is represented by a sculpture on a high pedestal in the left background. Several interpretations of the subject by the artist are known, the most notable being the paintings in the Rijksmuseum (see W. Sumowksi, Gemälde der Rembrandt Schuler, IV 1989, cat. No. 1610, with ill.), in the Royal collection, Belgium (photograph in the RKD) and in Kingston (Sumowski, op.cit., cat. No. 1624, with ill.). The present painting differs from these other interpretations in the use of a horizontal format, but otherwise attests of the same artistic level. The prime source of the composition is of course Rembrandts painting of Simeon in the temple of 1629 (Mauritshuis) but in the rendering of the sculpture of the god on a high pedestal de Poorter also reveals knowledge of Maerten van Heemskerck' engraving of the subject where a similar sculpture on a pedestal is seen. And to these are more inspirations to be added, such as in the love for still life detail, which is reminiscent of Gerard Dou in Leyden. Not much is known of the life of Willem de Poorter, other then that he was probably born in Haarlem and was recorded there on several occasions until 1649. He must have already been an independent painter by 1633 and thus belongs to the earliest generation of Dutch history painters seeking for success in the adaptation of Rembrandt's idiom for a wider public.