Lot 141: WILLEM WILLEMSZ. VAN DER VLIET

WILLEM WILLEMSZ. VAN DER VLIET DELFT 1584 - 1642 A SCHOLAR IN HIS STUDY WITH FIGURES WITH MASKS, POSSIBLY AN ALLEGORY signed and dated upper right: w. vander vliet fecit / anº 1627 oil on canvas 58 1/8 by 44 1/8 in.; 149 by 112 cm.

New York, Colnaghi, Italian, Dutch, and Flemish Baroque Paintings, 4 April to 4 May 1984;
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, 13 November 1986 - 12 April 1987, no. 79;
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, London, National Gallery, Vermeer and the Delft School, 8 March - 16 September 2001, no. 85.

Colnaghi, Italian, Dutch, and Flemish Baroque Paintings, p. 60, no. 29, reproduced;
L.J. Slatkes, in Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen (exh. cat. Utrecht & Brunswick 1986-1987), no. 79, reproduced;
C.J.A. Wansink, "Some History and Genre Paintings by Willem van der Vliet," in Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury, no. 6 (1987), pp. 4-5;
J. L. Williams, Dutch Art and Scotland: A Reflection of Taste, Edinburgh 1992, p. 152, under no. 72;
W. Liedtke, et al., Vermeer and the Delft School, exhibition catalogue, New York and London 2001, pp. 56-58 and 418-420, no. 85, reproduced;
A. Rüger, Vermeer and Painting in Delft, London 2001, pp.18-19, reproduced;
B. Ernsting, "Realistik zwischen Leben und Tod -- Die metamorphotische Maske. Zwei mysteriöse Gemälde von Jan Lievens," in Wir Sind Maske (exh. cat. Vienna 2009), p. 330-331, reproduced fig. 5.

Possibly Adam Drummond, 9th Baron of Lennoch and 2nd Baron of Megginch, acquired in Leiden in the 1670s;(1)
Sale, Mastraeten, Brussels (Property from the estate of the late L'Abbé Brasseur and others), 29 March 1825 and following days, lot 42 (described as "Une femme tient en riant un masque au-dessus de la tête d'un philosophe, tandis qu'une autre femme suivie de deux personnages masqués semblent l'interroger), for 44 francs, to Rooseboom;
The Honorable Mrs. Q.C. Agnew-Somerville;
By whom sold (The Property of The Hon. Mrs. Q.C. Agnew-Somerville), London, Sotheby's, 9 March 1983, lot 69;
With Colnaghi, London, 1984;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

This remarkable and haunting picture, painted by Willem van der Vliet in 1627, has been the subject of enormous interest since its appearance on the market in 1983. Our knowledge of Van der Vliet is somewhat limited, but he was sufficiently famous to have been included in Dirck van Bleyswijck's Beschryvinge der stadt Delft, published in 1667. He studied with Michiel van Miereveld and joined the Delft painter's guild in 1615. Although later more famous as a portraitist, Van der Vliet began his career as a history painter, a designation that in the seventeenth century included allegory, mythology, religion and history itself. Today only six such paintings are known by him, the grandest and most compelling of which is A Scholar in His Study.(2 ) The composition seems so direct, but although the picture has been in two major exhibitions, the subject continues to puzzle and intrigue collectors and scholars alike. Various explanations have been offered — including a playwright surrounded by his characters, a philosopher rejecting the sexual advances of earthly love, and a depiction of learning, lust and fraud — but none is totally satisfactory.(3 )Despite our best efforts, we, too, have been frustrated in trying to decipher the full meaning of this fascinating work. We persist, nonetheless, because the picture itself draws us in.

The year 1627, when Van der Vliet painted A Scholar in His Study, was a time of transition and growth in the Netherlands. Prince Maurits had died just two years before and was succeeded by his half-brother Frederik Hendrik, who undertook to stabilize military and political policy. In terms of the arts, Honthorst and Terbrugghen were the leading painters in Utrecht and at the top of their form, but Caravaggism was gradually giving way to newer trends. Rembrandt and Lievens were young rivals in Leiden, pushing each other ever further, while in Delft, artists working in the various fields of portrait, history, still life and genre painting were defining a local style. A Scholar in His Study encapsulates these different trends. The basic structure of the painting reflects the influence of the Dutch Caravaggisti: as in paintings by Honthorst, Terbrugghen and Baburen, the figures here are set in an undefined interior, shown three-quarter length and set close to the viewer. In the earlier works strategic lighting and dramatic gestures are used to define the central point of the action, but Van der Vliet, responding to the new classicism that was growing up in Utrecht, tempered his style. The result is a blending of the strength and dynamism of the Caravaggisti with greater finesse and refinement that became a hallmark of the Delft school. A Scholar in His Study embodies this synthesis and may, in turn, have been an influence on Vermeer's earliest works, like Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.(4)

Standing at the center of the painting, her figure lit by a cool, even light, is a young woman. She wears a full, milky white blouse and a yellow satin skirt, its shimmering surface evoked by Van der Vliet's short parallel brush strokes. Around her waist she has tied a striped scarf, which hangs in long loops creating a circular rhythm that contrasts with the downward movement of the pleats. With her right hand she gestures toward the seated man, while with her left she holds a mask, her fingers poking through the empty eyeholes. She projects strength and determination and is undeniably lovely. A panel depicting Two Young Girls, from a private collection, currently hanging in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, is probably a study for the woman (fig. 1). In it are two girls in half length, both apparently painted from the same model. They strongly resemble the woman in Scholar in His Study, though their features are softer and more individualized. The figure at the left is set in profile, her hair style is almost identical to the woman here. Around her neck is the same scarf used as a sash in the present work. The girl in full face also wears a scarf, but it has the same pattern as the turban of the masked figure at the right.

The scholar himself is remarkably individualized and beautifully painted, with deep creases around his eyes, long graying beard and thinning hair. It is little wonder that Slatkes suggested the present work might actually be a portrait historié, the subject a contemporary playwright surrounded by his characters.(5) He is clearly an educated man, seated at a table piled with books, and his expression and demeanor suggest both intelligence and humor. He has been compared to the teachers in two representations of A Teacher Instructing His Pupils, one dated 1626, in the National Trust for Scotland, Brodie Castle, and the other from circa 1626-28, formerly in the collection of Dr. W. Katz, London. However, the man here seems more prosperous and sophisticated than those earnest souls, and he is not formally instructing the people around him.

The interaction between the scholar and the young woman is at the very center of Scholar in His Study and must be the key to its meaning. The other figures are relegated to the shadows and are primarily observers. Christina Wansinck suggests that the man represents "the steadfast philosopher" and the woman is "earthly love".(6) She compares the present work to a painting by Honthorst on loan to the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, in which the figure of love is taking off her clothes and is stroking the philosopher. The intentions of the young woman here are hardly so obvious, and her gesture toward the man seems admonitory, not seductive.

The young man standing behind the seated figure holds a mask over the latter's head as if it were a crown. As masks were commonly used as symbols of duplicity, his gesture would seem to cast doubt on the integrity of this learned figure. Walter Liedtke, in a very complex and nuanced discussion suggests that his action in fact casts doubt on the entire scene, and that the ultimate meaning of the picture is a warning against fraud in its various disguises.(7)

Other elements in the painting have distinct sexual connotations, such as the extremely phallic money bag the masked figure at the right clutches, or the woman's fingers slipping through the eye holes of the mask. But the money bag is also a symbol of avarice. This figure could well be a rich suitor for the hand of the young woman, and the turbanned man set back from the main action might be his attendant. If this is the case, the woman is not happy about the prospect of marriage. The painting could be illustrating a contemporary play or a now obscure classical work, but our not knowing the answer truly adds rather than detracts from our appreciation of this compelling painting. The beauty of the conception and the complex interaction of the figures are glorious in their own right, and each time we approach the work we can do so with the hope that we will discover something new and exciting about it.

1. In the Sotheby's auction of 1983 and the later literature, the painting was described as having descended from Adam Drummond to the Hon. Mrs. Q.C. Agnew-Somervile. Slatkes, op. cit., p. 346, had questioned this, noting the French dealer's label on the back of the frame. His doubts now seem to have been confirmed by the discovery that the pictures was sold at auction in Brussels in 1825.
2. Wansinck, op. cit., pp. 3-10.
3. See Liedtke, op. cit., for a summary of the various opinions.
4. A. Rüger, op. cit., p.56.
5. Slatkes pp. 346 and 348.
6. Wansinck, pp. 4-5.
7. Liedtke, p. 420.