Lot 127: Eglon van der Neer (Amsterdam 1634-1703 Düsseldorf)

Eglon van der Neer (Amsterdam 1634-1703 Düsseldorf) A female painter sitting at an easel, with a man in an interior, in a trompe l'oeil window signed and dated 'E. van der Neer f. 1665[?]' (lower right) oil on panel 14 ½ x 12 ½ in. (37 x 31.8 cm.)

37 x 31.8 cm.

(Possibly) C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, Esslingen and Paris, 1912, V, no. 88a. E. Schavemaker, Eglon van der Neer (1635/6-1703), Doornspijk, 2010, pp. 42 and 456, no. 14, fig. 13'.

(Possibly) Cornelia van der Neer, younger sister of the artist, as 'a lady painting', by 1684. (Probably) Robert Orr; Christie's, London, 13 June 1903, lot 105 (£5 15s to Farr). (Probably) M.H. Colnaghi; Robinson/Fisher, London, 22 October 1908, lot 295. Fürsten von Isenburg. Fürstlich Isenburg'sches Linienfideikommiss; Helbing, Frankfurt, 4 May 1932, lot 82, as 'dated 1662'. De Haas, 1937, to the following, with P. de Boer, Amsterdam. with Galerie Abels, Cologne. Private collection, Berlin. Anonymous sale; H.W. Lange, Berlin, 19 November 1938, lot 171, as 'dated 1665'. with Heinemann, Wiesbaden, where acquired in July 1975 by the grandfather of the present owner.

The son of the acclaimed landscape painter Aert van der Neer (1603/4-1677), Eglon trained first under his father and then under the established history and genre painter Jacob van Loo (1614-1670), a field he was to excel in. After circa 1685 his career was dominated by his service as painter to various noble courts, including Charles II, Elector Palatine, where he produced genre and history paintings, as well as portraits and landscapes. This panel shows a couple in an informal moment. Both lavishly dressed, the husband looks through the niche directly at the viewer, while the lady has paused her activity either to study the vase of flowers she is depicting, hidden behind the wall, or in to reflect. The theme of interruption from a certain activity, the figure absorbed in thought, was well established in Dutch genre painting. Furthermore, Dutch artists often depicted a painting within a painting to comment on their subject, and here the flowers in full bloom might allude to the sitters’ beauty and youth, both however transient with time. Eddy Schavemaker, to whom we are grateful for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs, believes it to be a characteristic, early work.