Lot 121: CORNELIS DE MAN DELFT 1621 - 1706

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A PORTRAIT OF THE PHARMACIST DR YSBRAND YSBRANDSZ. (1634/35-1705) IN AN INTERIOR, WRITING AT A DESK DRAPED WITH A PERSIAN CARPET LAID WITH AN ASTROLOGICAL GLOBE, A SKULL, A VIOLIN, PAPERS AND BOOKS, A FIREPLACE IN THE BACKGROUND

measurements note
58.3 by 49.8 cm.

inscribed with the name of the sitter's family on a painting with a coat-of-arms upper centre: Circumspecte./YSBRANS and on the book, centre left: ALL'ILLVSTRISSIMO/ SIGNOR CONTE NICOLO PONZONI

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Boston (according to an old label on the reverse);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 17 May 1961, lot 99, as by Michiel van Musscher, for 320 pounds to Daan Cevat;
J.R. van Reekum, Laren, by 1965.

EXHIBITED

Exhibition October 1965 (according to a label on the reverse)

NOTE

We are grateful to Karen Schaffers of the R.K.D., The Hague for her help in identifying the sitter.

Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35- 1705) came from a patrician Rotterdam family and was enrolled as a medical student at the University of Leiden in 1656. While he held numerous public offices, such as town-councillor from 1673 until 1704 and Burgomaster of Rotterdam in 1703, he was above all a pharmacist. He married Maria Blaeuw in 1664 and had several children (see Dr. P.C. Molhuysen and Prof. Dr. P.J. Blok, Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Leiden 1911, p. 1596).

Cornelis de Man also came from a family of pharmacists: both his grandfather and his uncle occupied this profession. Although not a Rotterdam artist, it seems plausible that professional connections led to Ysbrandsz. commissioning this portrait from De Man, who was active in Delft, a couple of hours' ride at the most from Rotterdam. Another painting by De Man representing Three Pharmacists is in the National Museum, Warsaw (inv. no. M.Ob. 22). (See M.E. Lambrechtsen, Cornelis de Man (1621-1706), Een selectie uit het oeuvre van een veelzijdige Delftse schilder, Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam 2005, unpublished master thesis).

As this work shows, many of De Man's interior scenes can be identified as portraits. He mainly painted men of intellect and trade: see for example the Goldweigher, sold New York, Sotheby's, 30 January 1998, lot 30, now in a private collection. In this he differs from his Delft contemporaries such as Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) and Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who mainly focussed on depicting interior scenes showing women and their activities of writing, reading letters or attending children.

In style and execution this work can be compared to various other interior scenes by De Man. He often used same elements in his scenes. A good example for this is The scientist, in a private collection, Rotterdam, in which a similar prominent fireplace as in the present work recurs.