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Lot 2055: Michael Sweerts, A Young Artist drawing Beggars in a Landscape

Est: €60,000 EUR - €80,000 EURSold:
Kunsthaus Lempertz KGKöln, GermanyJune 05, 2021

Item Overview

Description

The documented facts about the biography of the painter Michael Sweerts are rather sparse: Born in Brussels in 1618, in 1646 his name appears in the parish registers of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. There we learn that he lived in the "Strada Margutta", where other Catholic artists from the north also lived. Sweerts had achieved quite considerable fame in Rome and could count on a circle of prominent patrons, first and foremost Prince Camillo Pamphili and the Dutch silk merchants Jean, Josef and Jeronimus Deutz. Despite this, he left the city again in the period between 1652 and 1654. In 1655 he is mentioned as having attended a baptism in Brussels, and in 1659 he is included among the artists in the city's Academy of Saint Luke. We also learn that he founded his own painting school in Brussels. Later, he joined a Catholic missionary organization, consisting of followers of Vincent de Paul, which was dedicated to conducting missionary work in the East. In 1661, Sweerts is documented in Amsterdam for a few months, where he supervised the construction of a ship in which the missionaries would set sail on their journey to the Far East. In December of the same year, we find him in Marseilles, from whence the ship left shortly after for Palestine. However, during the journey overland in Syria, Sweerts began to experience psychological issues, so that somewhere between Isfahan and Tabriz in Persia he was dismissed from the society and continued his journey alone. He eventually managed to arrive at the Jesuit sanctuary in Goa, where he is said to have died at the age of 46. As an artist, Michael Sweerts is associated with the so-called Bamboccianti, a group of Dutch painters in Rome who developed the genre of southern peasant scenes. However, he can hardly be referred to as a "Bambocciante tout-court", as his works display an intellectual and socio-philosophical sensitivity that elevates them from the status of mere genre paintings. Following his arrival in Rome, Michael Sweerts pursued the subject of "artists at work" with remarkable persistence. Between 1646 and 1652, he created four paintings of artists' studios and four others showing artists drawing outdoors. In Rome, Sweerts recognized that being an artist, or the artist's mission, involved intellectual reflection on one's own actions beyond the craft itself. In this sense, the present painting has been described by Laura Laureati as an emblematic example of Sweerts's early activity in Rome (op. cit.). Equally significantly, Lara Yaeger-Crasselt recognizes it in her study of Michael Sweert's role in artistic education in the Netherlands and Rome at this time (op. cit.). This artist's complete works consist of barely more than 50 paintings. The rank of this work within his overall oeuvre is evidenced by the many publications and the numerous exhibitions in which it has been described or shown.

Dimensions

76 x 60 cm

Artist or Maker

Medium

Oil on canvas (relined)

Exhibited

Leiden, De Lakenhal, Kunstbezit van Oud-Alumni der Leidse Universiteit, 1950, no. 49. - Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Michael Sweerts en tijdgenoten, 1958, no. 1. - Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Michael Sweerts e i Bamboccianti, 1958, no. 1. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (28th August – 17th November 1991), Utrecht, Centraal Museum (6th December 1991 – 9th February 1992), I Bamboccianti, no. 33.5.

Literature

W. Martin: Michael Sweerts als schilder. Proeve van een biographie en een catalogues van zijn schilderijen', in Oud Holland, vol. 25, 1907, p. 154, no. 35. - W. Martin: Nog een Sweerts, in Oud Holland, vol. 34, 1916, p. 181-2, - J. Meder: Die Handzeichnungen, 1919, p. 277. - E. Trautscholdt, in U. Thieme & F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, vol. XXXII, Leipzig 1938, p. 349 - R. Kultzen: Michael Sweerts (1624-1664), Diss., Hamburg 1954, p. 29, 238, no. 2. - R. Kultzen, in J.C. Ebbinge Wubben, Michael Sweerts en tijdgenoten, exhib. cat. Rotterdam 1958, p. 35, 1, illus. 1. - R. Kultzen, in Pantheon, vol. XXXVIII, 1980, p. 64 ff, illus. 2. -T.J. Kren: Johannes Lingelbach in Rome, in The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 10, 1982, p. 52, illus. 15. - L. Laureati, in G. Briganti, L. Trezzani, L. Laureati: The Bamboccianti (English ed.), Rome 1983, p. 302, illus. 13.2 - R. Kultzen, in D.A. Levine & E. Mai, I Bamboccianti, exhib. cat., Milan 1991, p. 275, no. 33.5, illus. p. 276. - R. Kultzen: Michael Sweerts, Doornspijk 1996, p. XV , illus. 2. - P. C. Sutton, in P. C. Sutton & G. Jansen: Michael Sweerts (1618-1664), exhib. cat. Zwolle 2002, p. 14, illus. 7. - L.Yaeger-Crasselt: Michael Sweerts (1618 - 1664). Shaping the Artist and the Academy in Rome and Brussels, p. 223, illus. 38.

Provenance

Presumably W. Spieringh, Delft (died 25th January 1689). His inventory lists: ”een bedelaarsgezelschapje off een grotje – van Cavallier Swarts“. - H. van Slochem, Antwerp. - Dr. C.A. van Hees, Reeuwijk, 1958. - Mak van Waay, Amsterdam 31.05.1960, lot 20. - Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1960. - Sotheby's, London 27.03.1963, lot 62. – The Melmeluzzi collection, Rome. – Italian private ownership.

Notes

VAT: Margin scheme

Payment & Shipping

Payment

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Shipping

Anyone who fails to complete any transaction associated with any bids placed with All American Auction will be sued for "breach of contract". PLEASE NOTE, ONLINE BIDDERS WHO DO NOT PAY FOR THEIR INVOICE WITHIN 4 DAYS OF RECEIVING THEIR INVOICE WILL HAVE THEIR CREDIT CARD ON FILE FROM WEPAY AUCTIONZIP AND INVALUABLE AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED FOR THE COST OF THE WINNING ITEMS AS WELL AS ALL APPLICABLE FEES AND TAXES. ALL INTERNET BIDDERS AGREE TO SAID CREDIT CARD CHARGES PER THESE TERMS. iF YOU DO NOT AGREE DO NOT BID! All online bids will incur a 15% buyer's premium. Declined credit cards will result in legal actions being taken. All legal fees are the sole responsibility of the bidder. Any legal action arising from transactions, either being conducted online or live at our auction hall or any other location represented by All American Auction, will be conducted in Falls County, Texas, USA and under the current laws of the State of Texas, USA. All operations for this auction company are based in Texas and operated under the current laws of Texas, regardless of user or operator computer location.

Auction Details

Terms

Live bidding may start higher or lower

Buyer's Premium

€0 - 400,000:36.32%
€400,001+:30.37%

Bidding Increments

From:To:Increment:
€0€999€50
€1,000€1,999€100
€2,000€3,999€200
€4,000€5,499€300
€5,500€14,999€500
€15,000€29,999€1,000
€30,000€49,999€2,000
€50,000€64,999€3,000
€65,000+€50,000

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Shipping Terms

Anyone who fails to complete any transaction associated with any bids placed with All American Auction will be sued for "breach of contract". PLEASE NOTE, ONLINE BIDDERS WHO DO NOT PAY FOR THEIR INVOICE WITHIN 4 DAYS OF RECEIVING THEIR INVOICE WILL HAVE THEIR CREDIT CARD ON FILE FROM WEPAY AUCTIONZIP AND INVALUABLE AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED FOR THE COST OF THE WINNING ITEMS AS WELL AS ALL APPLICABLE FEES AND TAXES. ALL INTERNET BIDDERS AGREE TO SAID CREDIT CARD CHARGES PER THESE TERMS. iF YOU DO NOT AGREE DO NOT BID! All online bids will incur a 15% buyer's premium. Declined credit cards will result in legal actions being taken. All legal fees are the sole responsibility of the bidder. Any legal action arising from transactions, either being conducted online or live at our auction hall or any other location represented by All American Auction, will be conducted in Falls County, Texas, USA and under the current laws of the State of Texas, USA. All operations for this auction company are based in Texas and operated under the current laws of Texas, regardless of user or operator computer location.

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Buyers Premium

A premium of 28 % calculated (25% + 3% live bidding fee) on the hammer price plus 16 % value added tax calculated on the surcharge only is levied (margin scheme). On the lots which are characterized by an *, the buyer shall pay a premium of 23% (20% + 3% live bidding fee) on the hammer price; onto this (hammer price and premium) the statutory VAT of 16% will be added. (Regelbesteuerung = regular scheme). For original works of art and photographies whose author died after 31.12.1947, a charge of 1.8% on the hammer price will be levied fort he droit de suite.