Gérard Wigmana, Dutch 1673-1741- The Doctor's visit; oil on panel,...

Gérard Wigmana,
Dutch 1673-1741-

The Doctor's visit;

oil on panel, 36.7 x 27.6 cm.

Provenance:
Anon. sale, Societe Thierry de Maigret SARL, Paris, 3 December, 2014, lot 33.
Private Collection, UK.

Note:
Born in the small Frisian town of Workum, Gerard Wigmana travelled and worked not only in Paris, where he studied at the Royal Academy, but also in Italy, Rome and Modena. He was nicknamed ‘the Frisian Raphael’, as he was very apt in trying to emulate Raphael’s style of smooth painting, at the very end of the 17th Century (see B. van Haersma Buma, 'Gerardus Wigmana. De Friese Raphaël', in: De Vrije Fries 49 (1969), pp. 43-65). Afterwards he returned to Holland where he resided in Amsterdam.

The subject of the doctor's visit is one which was regularly depicted by an earlier generation of 17th-century Dutch artists, including Jan Steen (1626-1679), Frans van Mieris (1635-1681), and Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682). Much of Wigmana's work also exhibits a similarity to certain French artists including Simon Vouet (1590-1649) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), who often treated Classical subjects in fanciful settings, their languorous figures frequently set against folds of rich drapery.