Jan van Neck

The actual painting is slightly warmer in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas has a rather firm relining. No damages seem to be apparent, and the paint surface seems to be in good condition. Particularly the impasto brushwork in the clothes of the figures and in the leaves of the trees has been nicely preserved. Some small retouchings can be observed in the draperies of the figures and in the background centre right, as well as some strengthening in the dog and in the arrow quiver in the foreground. The paint surface is covered with a clear layer of varnish and seems to be recently cleaned. Inspection under ultra violet light confirms the aforesaid retouchings, and reveals additional scattered retouchings throughout, e.g. in the putto, in the trees in the background upper left, and in the chest and feet of the male figure. Furthermore, inspection under ultra violet light reveals that the varnish layer has been unevenly cleaned. Offered in a decorative carved gilt wood frame in good condition. (MW)
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Jan van Neck worked alternately in Enkhuizen and Amsterdam, where he trained with Jacob Backer until his death in 1651. In 1665, at the time of his marriage, he is recorded as living on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. The painter is especially active in the two decades from the mid-1660s to 1680s. After 1684 he is considerably less productive and after 1700 he virtually stopped working. There is no mention of Van Neck ever having had a studio or pupils.
Seventy odd paintings are attributed to Van Neck and whilst the largest part of his oeuvre consists of portraits he also painted a number of biblical and mythological scenes.¹ 
Scarcely clad ancient gods, goddesses and heroes are Van Neck's specialty, and episodes featuring Venus are amongst the artist's most popular themes. This work depicts the well-known story of the impossible love between Venus and Adonis in a compositional scheme used by the artist several times, e.g. a kneeling or seating male in profile, a in contraposto standing female and putti at the top that create a triangly shaped group. The present work is reminiscent of a signed and dated composition depicting the Deification of Aeneas in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, (inv. no. Dep 579) painted in 1683.² Slender and weightless figures appear in both works and Van Neck employs the same refined handling and colouring, both resulting in a delicate air of elegance typical of the artist's work in the 1680s. Possibly the present painting was intended to be a pendant for the Cephalus and Procris, now in the Princes Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, which is of the same size.³

We are grateful to Robert Schillemans, curator of the Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder in Amsterdam, for endorsing the attribution and for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, which will be included as an autograph work in a forthcoming article on the artist. 

1. Robert Schillemans, "Jan van Neck (1635-1714), schilder en contrarolleur van de convoyen en licenten", forthcoming.
2. See W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. VI, p. 3735, no. 2393, reproduced p. 4009.
3. Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 51 cm. Schillemans also dates this painting c. 1683.