Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 2 December 2008, lot 2.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in very good and fresh condition. The canvas has been lined recently. The work is cleaned and recently retouched and varnished. It should be hung in its current condition. The retouches, which are visible under ultraviolet light, address some cracking and small patches of thinness in the sky which one expects from works of this period. In the figures and animals the condition is very good with only a few cracks being retouched in the faces of Jacob and Rachel.
"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."

The present work is to be included in Dr. Volker Manuth's forthcoming monograph on the artist.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was a close friend and pupil of Rembrandt, with whom he trained from 1635-40.  He was an artist of great versatility and a gifted colorist whose output included mainly history paintings, but also portraits and landscapes.

Van den Eeckhout's Jacob and Rachel sets this familiar Old Testament subject (Genesis 29, verses 1-12) within a Dutch pastoral scene.  Depictions of idealized rural life, often with shepherds and shepherdesses cavorting in the countryside, were popular subjects in Dutch literature and painting from about 1620.  Rembrandt and artists in his circle experimented with this theme, and sitters were often now included in the paintings in the roles of country folk, carrying props such as a shepherd's crook.  Unlike in many of van den Eeckhout's history paintings, here the figures look out directly to engage the viewer and this work may, in fact, be a family portrait depicting a newly married couple.  Dr. Manuth has speculated that the painting could have been commissioned by a man named Jacob on the occasion of his marriage.¹  No other paintings from this date by van den Eeckhout are recorded, but from the 1660s to the 1670s, the artist painted many notable portraits in pastoral settings.  Probable portraits also appear in other history paintings such as in The Continence of Scipio (Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art) which depicts a young couple in the role of a bride and groom.

 

1.  In a private communication, see Sale, London, Christie's, 2 December 2008, lot 2.