Michael Sweerts

Probably W. Spieringh, Delft (died 25 January 1689), the picture listed in the inventory of his Estate as een bedelaarsgezelschapje off een grotje – van Cavallier Swarts (`a company of beggars in a cave – by Cavalier Sweerts') ;
H. van Slochem, Antwerp;
Dr. C.A. van Hees, Reeuwijk, 1958;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Mak van Waay, 31 May-3 June 1960, lot 20;
With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1960;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 27 March 1963, lot 62, for £1,300 to Luca;
Melmeluzzi collection, Rome.

Leiden, De Lakenhal, Kunstbezit van Oud-Alumni der Leidse Universiteit, June 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;
Delft, Prinsenhof, Kunstbeurs, 1960 (exhibited by Gebr. Douwes);
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (28 August – 17 November 1991), Utrecht, Centraal Museum (6 December 1991 – 9 February 1992), I Bamboccianti, no. 33.5.

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, pp. 181-2, reproduced;
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, pp. 29, 238, no. 2;
R. Kultzen, in J.C. Ebbinge Wubben, Michael Sweerts en tijdgenoten, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam 1958, p. 35, no. 1, reproduced plate 1;
R. Kultzen, in Pantheon, vol. XXXVIII, 1980, pp. 64ff, reproduced fig. 2;
T.J. Kren, `Johannes Lingelbach in Rome', in The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 10, 1982, p. 52, reproduced fig. 15;
L. Laureati, in G. Briganti, L. Trezzani, L. Laureati, The Bamboccianti (English ed.), Rome 1983, reproduced p. 302, fig. 13.2;
R. Kultzen, in D.A. Levine & E. Mai, I Bamboccianti, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1991, p. 275, no. 33.5, reproduced in colour p. 276;
R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, Doornspijk 1996, pp. XV (note 9),  16, 17, 28, 87, no. 2, reproduced plate 2;
P.C. Sutton, in P.C. Sutton & G. Jansen, Michael Sweerts (1618-1664), exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 2002, p. 14, reproduced fig. 7.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable and flat. There is some repaired paint loss to the top edge and the top right hand corner. Small pin prick paint loss to the sky has been replicated throughout the paint surface to a greater or lesser degree, and an effort has been made to reduce this. Areas of the vulnerable paint layer have been subjected to past abrasive action imparting a flattening of the image due to the compromising of delicate scumbles and glazes; the coarse canvas texture is visible through the paint in many areas. Some of the highlights are better preserved but these areas have also been strengthened. The remains of an older varnish obscures the true tonality of the image and hides some of the more subtle details in the darker passages. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame with minor losses."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is an early work by Sweerts, probably painted shortly after his arrival in Rome in the mid 1640s.  Nothing is known of his work before he left Flanders, and most of his output - some thrity pictures are currently known - dates from his years in Rome prior to his departure for Brussels in 1656.  Since none of his Roman paintings are dated or hold clear clues to dating, their chronology cannot easily be established.  On the basis of what we know of his oeuvre,  whatever development he may have had in Flanders, no trace of it can be detected in any of his Roman paintings, all of which are, technically as well as stylistically, Roman Bambocciati.  For example, the warm brown ground layer in this painting as well as the handling and - in broad terms - the subject matter are rooted in the traditions of his Roman peers, such as Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Jan Miel or Pieter van Laer, and we can only assume therefore that upon his arrival in Rome, Sweerts adopted the local style straight away.  He did not however imitate his peers, and his pictures are never likely to be confused with theirs.  His figures are more monumental and severely modelled, and the Caravaggesque chiaroscuro that he adopted is more direct.  In particular however their mood is entirely different.  His pictures are never mere anecdotal vignettes of Roman low-life observed dispassionately.  Many include young artists – the observer observed, so to speak - or other such figures who do not belong in the setting.  In others there is a narrative content, and in many of them, including his original and distinctive studies of single figures there is an obvious interaction between the subject and the artist.

The beggar(s) in this picture have usually been considered the subject of the young draftsman, and indeed he does appear to have glanced up at them, perhaps spurred by the gesture of one of his two companions, but equally he may well have been drawing ruins or statuary, and was interrupted by the beggar, who is holding out his upturned hat as a request for alms.¹  In several other pictures from Sweerts' early Roman period he depicts young artists seated drawing amid Roman ruins.²  At around the same time, or at any rate within a year or two, he started to paint young artists drawing within studios, where their subject is usually antique sculptural fragments, a subject he develops further in the celebrated painting of a life-drawing class in Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum.³  

It is tempting to see the young draftsman in this and other such paintings as Sweerts himself, but on the basis of the few probable self-portraits that he painted, such as the on in the Uffizi, which are full-face, his features cannot be clearly recognised in this and other young draftsmen, who are usually seen in profile.⁴  In any case it is of greater significance that Sweerts saw the depiction of an artist such as himself or his friends out drawing among the street life of Rome as a suitable subject for a painting.

1.  This beggar is however the subject of a painting by Sweerts showing only his head and shoulders and the hand holding the hat, in the Hohenbuchau collection (see Sutton, 2002, p. 14, reproduced p. 15, fig. 8). Further depictions of beggars holding caps are known.
2.  See Kultzen, 1996, pp. 87-8, nos. 3 & 4, reproduced plates 3 & 4.
3.  For example idem, pp. 87-9, nos. 1, 6, reproduced plates 1 & 6 and colour plate III; and idem, p. 110, no. 74, reproduced plate 74.
4.  Idem, p. 114, no. 84, reproduced plate 84; also pp. 115-6, nos. 89 & 90, reproduced plates 88 & 89.