Description
The Spanish Gipsy with signature 'Rembrandt' (lower centre) oil on canvas 52 3/8 x 43 5/8 in. (133 x 110.8 cm.) PROVENANCE Wouter Valckenier (1705-1784), [23] Kloveniersburgwal, nr. the Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, by whom bequeathed to his widow Elizabeth, n‚e Hooft (1712-1796); sale, Rycken, Amsterdam, 31 August 1796, lot 33, as Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, 'In dit uitmuntend schilderij ziet men ter linker zijde een meisje in een rijke kleeding zittende op de voorgrond; nevens haar staat een geit, waarop een aartig kindje, meede in rijke kleeding gezeeten is, en die door Dienstmaagd of Voedster word vastgehouden; aan de andere zijde vertoond zich noch een jong meisje van ter zijde te zien en alles is zeer stout, fix en meesterlijk gepenceeld en met die kragt van coloriet en uitwerking vervaardigt, deze grooten konstenaar alleen eigen, kunnen de ook voor een der beste werken van hem beschouwt worden.' (1,413 florins to Carli [the dealer B. Carli]). Josephus Augustinus Brentano, Heerengracht, Amsterdam; (+) sale, De Vries, Amsterdam, 13 May 1822, as Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, 'Une ContrabandiŠre, avec ses Marchandises' (3,205 florins to De Vries [presumably the dealer, Jeronimo de Vries, who presumably sold the picture to, or bought it on behalf of, Townshend]). Lord Charles Townshend (1785-1853), by 1824, when exhibited at the British Institution, by whom presumably sold to Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys; sale, Christie's, London, 10 May 1833, lot 123, as Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, ' The Spanish Gipsy... This capital picture is of an extraordinary force of colouring; the effect of the clair-obscure is magical, and the whole is painted with a boldness which displays all the power of the great master so unique and talented' (610 gns. to Gordon, perhaps on behalf of Rothschild). Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868), H“tel Rothschild, Rue Lafitte, Paris, by 1836, when published by Smith, loc. cit., as by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, by whom bequeathed to Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1st Bt. (1810-1876), by whom bequeathed to his nephew Sir Nathan Mayer de Rothschild, 2nd Bt., subsequently 1st Baron Rothschild (1840-1915), Tring, Buckinghamshire, by whom presumably sold to Davis. With Charles Davis, London, by whom possibly sold to John Pierpont Morgan, New York (1837-1913). Baron Paul Hatvany (1899-1977), Cadogan Place, London; (+) Christie's, London, 11 July 1980, lot 17, as Nicolaes Maes (to Cramer on behalf of Dreesmann). Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. A-41). LITERATURE J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonn‚, etc., VII, London, 1836, p. 74, no. 175, as Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, ' A Nurse holding a Child on a Goat The picture is painted with astonishing breadth and force, and possesses the most dazzling effulgence of sunshine effect'. A. von Wurzbach, Niederl„ndisches Knstler-Lexikon, Vienna/Leipzig, II, 1910, p. 90, as Nicolaes Maes. W. von Bode, Der Meister der holl„ndischen und vlamischen Malerschulen, (2nd edn.) Leipzig, 1919, pp. 65-6, as Nicolaes Maes. C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonn‚, etc., VI, London, 1916, p. 500, no. 89, as Nicolaes Maes, 'A young Woman with a Child riding on a Goat'. W. Valentiner, Nicolaes Maes, Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig, 1924, pp. 11 and 44, fig. 6, as Nicolaes Maes, circa 1650. H. Wichmann, 'Review of Valentiner 1924', Der Cicerone, 16, 1924, p. 778, as an early work. W. von Bode, Die Meister der holl„ndischen und fl„mischen Malerschulen, 9th edn., E. Plietzsch, ed., Leipzig, 1958, p. 77, as Nicolaes Maes, circa 1652-3. W. Sumowski, 'Christus segnet die Kinder. Bemerkungen zu einem Frhwerk von Nicolaes Maes', Ladendorf-Festschrift, Cologne/Vienna, 1970, p. 42, as Nicolaes Maes, circa 1654. W. Sumowski, Gem„lde der Rembrandt-Schler, III, Landau-Pfalz, 1986, p. 2011, no. 1329, illustrated p. 2055, as Nicolaes Maes, dated to 'wohl um 1653'. Ibid., Drawings of the Rembrandt School, New York, 1984, p. 4116, under no. 1835, as Nicolaes Maes. Ibid., 'In Praise of Rembrandt's Pupils', in the catalogue of the exhibition, Rembrandt's Academy, p. 74, as Nicolaes Maes. Ibid., Gem„lde der Rembrandt-Schler, VI, Corrigenda und Addenda, Landau-Pfalz, 1994, p. 3628, no. 1329, illustrated p. 3677, as Nicolaes Maes. W. Robinson, The early works of Nicolaes Maes, 1653-1661, Phil. Diss., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996 (Anne Arbor 1997), no. C-12, as School of Rembrandt. L. Krempel, Nicolaes Maes, Petersberg, 2000, p. 362, no. D 40, figs. II and 5, as Nicolaes Maes, dated to circa 1653. EXHIBITION London, British Institution, 1824, no. 119, as Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, ' The Spanish Gipsy '. London, Matthiesen Gallery, Rembrandt's Influence, February 1973, no. 49, as Nicolaes Maes. The Hague, Mauritshuis, Terugzien in bewondering: a collector's choice, 1982, no. 53, illustrated, as Nicolaes Maes. Notre Dame, Indiana, Snite Museum of Art, On Loan from Holland. A Dutch Treat, 17 October-16 December 1982, no. 8, as Nicolaes Maes, illustrated on the cover. The Hague, Hoogsteder, Exhibition of Rembrandt's Academy, 1992, P. Huys Janssen, ed., pp. 236-9, no. 30, illustrated. Amsterdam, Gebr. Douwes, Old Master Paintings until 1805, Gebr. Douwes Fine Art 1805-1995, Katalog zur Verkaufsausstellung anl„álich des 190j„hrigen Firmenbestehens, 27 November 1995-3 January 1996, no. 27, as Nicolaes Maes. NOTES For long regarded as a notable work by Rembrandt, this was first published as the work of his pupil, Nicolaes Maes, by von Wurzbach in 1910. His attribution has been fully accepted by such scholars as Wilhelm von Bode and Werner Sumowski, and although listed by Robinson, loc. cit, as School of Rembrandt, the attribution to Maes was reaffirmed by Leon Krempel in his 2000 monograph and catalogue raisonn‚ of the artist's oeuvre. This important, early picture shows the artist at the outset of his career, strongly influenced by the work of his master. The exact dates of Rembrandt's pupils' apprenticeships are not generally known, however Maes's is thought to have begun between 1648 and 1650. The facts that by December 1653 Maes had settled in Dordrecht and had made plans to marry, and that his painting of The Expulsion of Hagar is signed and dated 1653 (fig a; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), confirm that he had begun his independent career by that date. Although the title of The Spanish Gypsy is a traditional one, dating back at least to 1824 (the year it was exhibited at the British Institution in London), the actual subject remains uncertain. The iconography of similarly dated works suggests that this is a history painting, and certainly the costume of the central female recalls those in Biblical subjects, whilst the headdress of the child seems to be based on sixteenth-century dress; however Maes had turned to genre painting by 1654, and some genre pictures of that year, for example the Young lace-maker beside a cradle (Worms, Heylshof Museum) and the Young girl at a window (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), retain an iconographic similarity to his history works, so the matter remains open for further research. At all events, the picture is grouped with a small number of history paintings from that period, including, besides the Metropolitan Museum picture, a Vertumnus and Pomona (1653?; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland), a Suffer the little Children to come unto Me (fig. b; 1652/3; London, National Gallery) and a Woman of Samaria at the Well (c. 1653; Amsterdam, Russell collection). The head of the central figure in the present work closely resembles that of Hagar in the Metropolitan picture, and it has been suggested that they both represent the same model, whilst the present composition recalls that of the London Suffer the little Children. Professor Werner Sumowski (1984, loc. cit.) has noted that there is a drawing by Maes, datable to 1652-3, of Hagar and the Angel near the Well (fig. c; Mus‚e des Beaux-Arts, Besan‡on), in which the figure of Hagar 'in type and dress is comparable' to the central standing figure in the present picture. By the later 1650s, Maes had begun to turn to the portraiture that would dominate his subsequent career. As he aged, his technique was to become increasingly rigid and stylised, and the 1650s are universally regarded as the zenith of his career, a view reflected by the fact that of the known history and genre paintings from this period, numbering about sixty, forty-three are in museums. With the exception of the present picture, the only major work by Maes to appear at auction for a generation is An old woman making lace in a kitchen, which was sold in 1985 (œ380,000) and again in 1994 (œ460,000); the painting is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Maes's colour, chiaroscuro and brushwork here owe a clear debt to Rembrandt's work of the mid-1640s to the early 1650s, for example the latter's Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop (fig. d; 1645; St. Petersburg, The Hermitage), or his Young girl at a window (fig. e; 1651, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum). Maes restricted his palette to blacks, browns, whites and reds and employed techniques ranging from a meticulous 'fine painting' style in the description of wooden furniture or a wicker cradle to a grainy - occasionally, as with the present picture, even pastose - application of richly graduated tones in the execution of fabric and flesh. Although indebted to Rembrandt's example, his early works exhibit a precocious originality in the interpretation of the sacred text and iconographic tradition. Indeed during this period, Maes can be ranked among the most innovative Dutch genre painters, owing to his talent for pictorial invention and for devising expressive poses, gestures and physiognomies. For instance, in the New York Expulsion of Hagar, Hagar's inconsolable response to her dismissal and the characterization of Ishmael as a prematurely embittered outcast mark it as one of the most poignant renderings of a theme that was especially popular amongst Rembrandt's students. The provenance of The Spanish Gipsy is documented from the end of the eighteenth century, and has passed through a series of highly distinguished collections. It is first recorded in the collection of Wouter Valckenier, a member of a prominent merchant family, whose relations included a Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, and Clara Valckenier, who married Casper Pellicorne, one of the subjects of Rembrandt's pair of double portraits of Jean Pellicorne and his son Casper and Susanna van Collen, wife of of Jean Pellicorne, and her daughter Anna (c. 1632-4; painted with studio participation; London, Wallace Collection). Wouter was a man of considerable means (his income was estimated in 1742 at between 8,000 and 9,000 florins, a very considerable sum; on her death, Elizabeth left an estate valued at 403,000 florins), who rose to become in 1731 Commisaris and, in 1736, Schepen of the City of Amsterdam. Valckenier's collection was divided between his family's Amsterdam residence in what is now 23 Kloveniersburgwal, near the Nieuwmarkt, and their country estate, Valk-en-Heining, on the river Amstel near Loenersloot. The 1796 sale of the Valckenier collection, caused by the couple having remained childless, contained several important works of art, including Rubens' Diana returning from the Chase (Cleveland, Ohio, Museum of Art). After passing through Josephus Brentano's collection, the painting entered that of the notable British collector Lord Charles Townshend. Townshend, whose seat was at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, was the youngest son of George, 2nd Marquess Townshend (1753-1811). For the most part, Townshend preferred to live in London, and assembled there an important collection of pictures, which he kept separate from the huge assemblage of family portraits at Raynham. The collection was begun in about 1811 and was continued, with regular sales and purchases, up to the year of his death, in 1853. Much of his collection was bought, and sold, through dealers, and he is known to have used both Jeronimo de Vries, from or through whom it may be assumed that he acquired The Spanish Gipsy, and Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys, to whom he almost certainly sold it. Amongst other pictures in his collection were masterpieces such as Rembrandt's Agatha Bas (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle) and Margaretha de Geer (London, National Gallery), Schalcken's Girl with a Candle (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle), Murillo's Young man drinking (London, National Gallery) and Teniers' Le Bonnet Rouge (Wrotham Park, England). From the Townshend collection, the picture passed, through Nieuwenhuys, to the Rothschild collection. Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868), Mayer Amschel's youngest son, was the most significant collector of the second generation of the Rothschild family. The decoration of his h“tel particulier in the Rue Lafitte, Paris, executed in circa 1820, combined elements of the Renaissance Revival with Pompeian Revival classicism. His renowned collection of works of art in the h“tel included objets from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, eighteenth-century French furniture and tapestries and numerous masterpieces by Old Masters, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Watteau, Van Eyck and Vel zquez. In 1836 the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) commented that the H“tel Rothschild contained 'everything the sixteenth-century mind could conceive of and the nineteenth-century purse could buy... it is the Versailles of the absolute monarchy of money'. J.P. Morgan is a legendary figure in the history of American collecting. His collection, vast and comprehensive in scale, ranged from superb Old Masters to rare manuscripts and Renaissance enamels, and helped to form a significant portion of the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick collection and the Wadsworth Athenaeum. One contemporary described the display of his collection in New York as 'the greatest event that had ever happened to any country'. Baron Paul Hatvany was a Hungarian exile whose family came to England just before the Second World War. In his house at Cadogan Place he built an important collection of Old Master Paintings and Drawings that included Giovanni Bellini's Dona delle Rose Madonna and Child (Southampton, Art Gallery), Rubens' Jacob and Esau (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland) and Francesco di Giorgio Martini's drawing of Adam and Eve (Oxford, Christ Church).
