Lot 58: Gerrit Zegelaar , Loenen aan de Vecht 1719 - 1794 Wageningen A self-portrait of the artist, half length, at a window, with a palette and paint-brushes on the windowsill oil on panel

oil on panel

measurements note 27 by 21.5 cm.; inner panel: 8.4 by 7 cm.

PROPERTY FROM A BELGIAN COLLECTION
At present, the painter Gerrit Zegelaar, who was born in Loenen aan de Vecht, is little known, but in his lifetime his work was included in two of the most prestigious art collections in Amsterdam, those of Jan Gildemeester and Gerrit Braamcamp.υ1 By 1743 he had acquired a considerable reputation, judging from a poem accompanying a self-portrait in which he was praised as the "Apelles from Loenen".υ2

Gerrit Zegelaar was preoccupied with his own likeness, as is demonstrated by the several self-portraits that have come down to us. A striking example is found in a set of wall paintings for a house in Haarlem, in which the artist (with his brush) and his wife represent Winter in a series of the Four Seasons.υ3 A self-portrait more akin to the present work was sold, Amsterdam, Christie's, 17 November 1994, lot 39. In the latter, the artist is portrayed at a younger age, but he uses the same compositional scheme of a painter placed in front of a window.

As with the other self-portrait, this work is a true trompe-l'oeil painting in its multi-layered representation of space and highly realistic rendition of different materials. Adding to the illusionistic quality of the work is the unique feature that the figure is painted on a seperate panel which is replaceable. The relief below the window shows putti working in a painter's studio, from stretching a canvas and preparing pigments to the very act of painting itself. The stone facade with the relief refer to the pictorial tradition of the Leiden school of fine painting, in particular the illusionistic 'niche-paintings' invented by Gerard Dou. However, the typically ribbled hardstone ledge is a motif frequently used by Zegelaar: see, for example, the signed pair of a kitchen maid and a hunter, sold in these Rooms, 12 November 1996, lot 79, and the signed portrait of a vegetable seller, formely with Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam.υ4 A preliminary study for this composition is in the Prentenkabinet, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK049, see fig. 1).
1. See E. Munnig Schmidt, 'Gerrit Zegelaar. Een 18de eeuwse kunstschilder uit Loenen a/d Vecht', in Jaarboekje van het Oudheidkundig genootschap Niftarlake, 2002, p. 68.
2, Munning Schmidt, op. cit., p. 72. We also learn that he was deaf.
3. idem, p. 73, reproduced fig. 12.
4. idem, p. 69, reproduced fig. 7.