ATTRIBUÉ À DIRCK JACOBSZ. (AMSTERDAM? VERS 1497-1567) Portrait d'un homme...
ATTRIBUÉ À DIRCK JACOBSZ. (AMSTERDAM? VERS 1497-1567)
Portrait d'un homme à la barbe rousse à l'âge de 32 ans
daté et inscrit ‘1541 / ETATIS. SUAE. / 32.’ (en haut, à droite, sur un cartel en trompe-l’œil)
huile sur panneau
36 x 30,5 cm (14 1⁄8 x 12 in.)
Provenance
Collection particulière, France.
Literature
ATTRIBUTED TO DIRCK JACOBSZ. (C.1497-1567), PORTRAIT OF A MAN AGED 32, OIL ON PANEL, INSCRIBED
Comparison of our portrait to Dirck Jacobsz’s later Portrait of Pieter Jansz. Gaef, alias Spiegel, half-length, holding a skull (sold Christie’s, New York, 31 January 2024, lot 48; $ 415,800) painted in 1558 (private collection, fig. 1) is illuminating. Equally unsigned, both portraits exhibit the same distinctive, almost sculptural treatment of the faces. Underdrawing perceptible in the present painting allows us to ascertain that in both instances, the artist rapidly laid out the sitter’s facial features with short strokes of a dry, carbon-based medium, paying particular attention to the placement of the nose. Very tellingly, the writing in the two trompe-l’oeil cartels, both held in place by small red pins, is also a match, as it is with that on the cartel in the Portrait of a 38-year-old man, 1548, by the same artist (private collection, Sweden).
The Amsterdam painter Dirck Jacobsz. was born at the end of the fifteenth century, the second son of the painter Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen (c. 1460⁄65-1533). At a very young age Dirck was already living in Amsterdam, where in 1500 his father bought a large workshop on Kalverstraat. Dirck trained with his father alongside his brother, Cornelis Jacobsz. (c. 1490-1532) and several other artists, including his close friend, Jan van Scorel (1495-1562). Dirck’s father was extremely versatile, producing large painted altarpieces, smaller panels for private devotion, portraits and ceiling paintings in churches. In contrast, Dirck appears to have specialized primarily in portraiture – particularly group portraits of members of civic guard companies - and was one of the first northern Netherlandish painters to do so.
Only a handful of paintings can be attributed to Dirck Jacobsz. with certainty, and nearly all are now in museum collections. His earliest painting is also recognized as the first group militia portrait in Dutch art, the 1529 Triptych with Guardsmen of the Amsterdam Kloveniersdoelen (Headquarters of the Arquebusiers’ Civic Guard), in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (on loan from the City of Amsterdam), which established a genre that would flourish over the course of the next century. In addition to his militia company group portraits, Dirck also excelled in the portrayal of the Amsterdam well-to-do bourgeoisie, of which the present individual portrait is an example.
This lot was consigned in collaboration with Pichon & Noudel-Deniau, auctioneers in Cannes.
ATTRIBUÉ À DIRCK JACOBSZ. (AMSTERDAM? VERS 1497-1567)
Portrait d'un homme à la barbe rousse à l'âge de 32 ans
daté et inscrit ‘1541 / ETATIS. SUAE. / 32.’ (en haut, à droite, sur un cartel en trompe-l’œil)
huile sur panneau
36 x 30,5 cm (14 1⁄8 x 12 in.)
Provenance
Collection particulière, France.
Literature
ATTRIBUTED TO DIRCK JACOBSZ. (C.1497-1567), PORTRAIT OF A MAN AGED 32, OIL ON PANEL, INSCRIBED
Comparison of our portrait to Dirck Jacobsz’s later Portrait of Pieter Jansz. Gaef, alias Spiegel, half-length, holding a skull (sold Christie’s, New York, 31 January 2024, lot 48; $ 415,800) painted in 1558 (private collection, fig. 1) is illuminating. Equally unsigned, both portraits exhibit the same distinctive, almost sculptural treatment of the faces. Underdrawing perceptible in the present painting allows us to ascertain that in both instances, the artist rapidly laid out the sitter’s facial features with short strokes of a dry, carbon-based medium, paying particular attention to the placement of the nose. Very tellingly, the writing in the two trompe-l’oeil cartels, both held in place by small red pins, is also a match, as it is with that on the cartel in the Portrait of a 38-year-old man, 1548, by the same artist (private collection, Sweden).
The Amsterdam painter Dirck Jacobsz. was born at the end of the fifteenth century, the second son of the painter Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen (c. 1460⁄65-1533). At a very young age Dirck was already living in Amsterdam, where in 1500 his father bought a large workshop on Kalverstraat. Dirck trained with his father alongside his brother, Cornelis Jacobsz. (c. 1490-1532) and several other artists, including his close friend, Jan van Scorel (1495-1562). Dirck’s father was extremely versatile, producing large painted altarpieces, smaller panels for private devotion, portraits and ceiling paintings in churches. In contrast, Dirck appears to have specialized primarily in portraiture – particularly group portraits of members of civic guard companies - and was one of the first northern Netherlandish painters to do so.
Only a handful of paintings can be attributed to Dirck Jacobsz. with certainty, and nearly all are now in museum collections. His earliest painting is also recognized as the first group militia portrait in Dutch art, the 1529 Triptych with Guardsmen of the Amsterdam Kloveniersdoelen (Headquarters of the Arquebusiers’ Civic Guard), in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (on loan from the City of Amsterdam), which established a genre that would flourish over the course of the next century. In addition to his militia company group portraits, Dirck also excelled in the portrayal of the Amsterdam well-to-do bourgeoisie, of which the present individual portrait is an example.
This lot was consigned in collaboration with Pichon & Noudel-Deniau, auctioneers in Cannes.
