Jacob van Oost

Congregation of the Apostoline Sisters, Bruges;
E.H. Vuylesteke;
Thence by inheritance.

J.L. Meulemeester, Jacob van Oost de Oudere en het zeventiende-eeuwse Brugge, Bruges 1984, p. 321, cat. nos. B27 and B28, reproduced p. 320, figs. 228 and 229.

The actual paintings are less red and softer in tone than the catalogue illustrations suggest. Both canvasses have an old, effective relining. Stretcher marks are slightly visible to the front. Both paint surfaces seem to be in very good condition, with only a few retouched blemishes and paint losses. They are covered under a fine layer of dirt and discoloured varnish. Minor strengthening in the cloak of St. Peter can be seen to the naked eye. Inspection under Ultra Violet light reveals that both oval edges show overpaint. St. Peter shows small retouchings in the cloak and hand, and a few tiny ones in the beard and face. St. Paul reveals tiny ones in the face, hands, background and scroll, as well as some minor strengthening in the beard. Offered in carved and gilt wood frames, a few chips. (MW/ML)
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Van Oost was a prolific artist, producing mainly Counter-Reformation altarpieces for the numerous churches and monasteries in and around Bruges, but he equally excelled in the genre of portraiture. He started his career as a free master in the Bruges Guild of Saint Luke in 1621. He travelled to Italy shortly afterwards, and resided primarily in Rome, where he studied under Annibale Carracci (1560-1609). His assistance in the latter's workshop had a lasting impact on his style, but he was also profoundly influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio (1571-1610). Van Oost returned to Bruges on 12 October 1628, where he became the leading painter of the Bruges school. Influenced initially by Italian Baroque painters, he later responded to the work of Antwerp painters Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). He was named official painter of the city of Bruges in 1651, a position he held until his death in 1671.

These portraits of Saint Peter and Saint Paul illustrate the vigorous and realistic style Van Oost had developed. The figures and features of both Saints, but in particular those of Saint Peter with his penetrating stare, are portrayed with an unflinching realism, appropriate to the sitters' age and wisdom. As Meulemeester rightly points out,  the figure of Saint Peter in particular is based on a traditional figural type that often recurs in the artist's oeuvre. Saint Peter here, for example, not only shows a remarkably stylistic resemblance to another Saint Peter in the Basilica of the Holy Blood, Bruges¹, but also to arbitrary elderly men or apostles in several of Van Oost's works.² It is likely that the same model sat for the artist on numerous occasions.

1. See Meulemeester under Literature, p. 309, cat. no. B15, reproduced pp. 166, 243, figs. 141 and 182.
2. See for example the Saint on the right in the Madonna and Child in Our Lady's Church, Bruges, and the head of the apostle in Christ parting of his Mother in the Saint Salvator Cathedral, Bruges, op. cit., pp. 272-5 and 351-2, cat. nos, A26 and B52, reproduced pp. 169, 273, 351, figs. 143, 196 and 253.