Lot 27: Hendrick Bloemaert , Utrecht 1601/2 - 1672 Democritus oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 95.5 by 74 cm.; 37 1/2 by 29 1/8 in.

London, Robilant and Voena, French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, 2007, no. 4.

B. Nicolson, Hendrick Terbrugghen, London 1958, p. 46, under nos. A3 and A4 (as Anonymous);
G.J. Hoogewerff, "Jan van Bijlert, schilder van Utrecht", in Oud Holland, vol. 80, no. 1, 1965, p. 27, no. 44 (as Jan van Bijlert);
A. Blankert, "Heraclitus en Democritus in het bizjonder in de Nederlandse kunst van de 17de eeuw" in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, vol. 18, 1967, p. 97, no. 30, reproduced p.62, fig. 18;
B. Nicolson (rev. L. Vertova), Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1989, p. 156, reproduced vol. III, plate 1355 (as Petrus Portengen);
Important Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York 1990, p. 70, reproduced plate 14;
C, Wright in French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London 2007, pp. 18-19, reproduced (as Hendrick Bloemaert).

Jules Porgès collection, Paris, circa 1880-1914 (as Jan van Bijlert);
With Charles Brunner, Paris, by 1919 (as by Hendrick Ter Brugghen);
Private collection, United Kingdom;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 December 1989, lot 241 (as by Jan van Bijlert), for £38,000 to Corsini;
With Pietro Corsini inc., New York, 1990;
With Galleria Caretto, Turin, 2006;
Acquired by the present owner in July 2006.

PROPERTY FROM THE LONDON RESIDENCE OF LUIGI KOELLIKER
This striking depiction of the philosopher Democritus has confounded scholars throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. When in the Jules Porgès collection, Paris, it was considered to be by Jan van Bijlert and was later published as such by G.J. Hoogewerff in 1965 (see Literature). Prior to that it had been with Charles Brunner as either Hendrick Terbrugghen (according to Hoogewerff, 1965) or Bernardo Strozzi (according to Nicolson, 1989). Nicolson refuted the attribution to Terbrugghen in his 1958 monograph on the painter, later publishing it as a work by Petrus Portengen. More recently Christopher Wright has published it as by Hendrick Bloemaert, an attribution that has been fully endorsed by Dr. Albert Blankert and tentatively supported by Prof. Marcel Roethlisberger on the basis of photographs.