David Vinckboons

Sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 June 1961, lot 64, to Terry-Engell;
With H. Terry-Engell Gallery, London;
From whom purchased by F. Kleinberger & Co., New York;
Harry G. Sperling, New York (last surviving partner of the Kleinberger firm);
By whom bequeathed to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971 (Inv. no. 1976.100.20).

London, H. Terry-Engell Gallery, The Netherlands in Landscape, 25 October - 30 November 1961, cat. no. 32;
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18 September 2007 - 6 January 2008 (no catalogue).

J. Walsh, Jr., "New Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," in Apollo 99, May 1974, pp 342, 349, n. 5, reproduced fig. 4;
K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by artists born in or before 1865, A Summary Catalogue, New York 1980, Vol. I, p. 193, reproduced Vol. III, p. 366;
K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by artists born in or before 1865, A Summary Catalogue, New York 1995, p. 298, reproduced;
W. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2007, Vol. II, pp. 914-916, cat. no. 210, reproduced p. 915, plate 210 and p. 916, fig. 258 (detail);
E. Quodbach, "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," in Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 65, Summer 2007, p. 59.

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 panel has a cradle on the reverse, which seems to be maintaining a flat and stable panel and paint layer. It also seems that the painting has not been unstable in the past. Although quite dirty, the painting appears to be in very good condition. There are restorations applied in a few spots that are visible under ultraviolet light, but these are extremely broad and ineffectual. When the picture is cleaned, no condition problems are expected to be revealed, except for those that are typical for a panel of this period. The warm palette seen at present will become cooler when cleaned. The condition is very encouraging, as are the painting's prospects for restoration.
"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 subject of this painting depicts two of Christ’s miracles, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood and the raising of Jairus’s daughter.  The story is told in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew (9:18-26), Mark (5:21-43), and Luke 8:40-56).  Vinckboons’s depiction adheres more closely to the story as told in Mark and Luke both of which describe Christ and the Apostles, having crossed the Sea of Galilee, arriving in the land of the Gadarenes.  Jesus is approached by Jairus (here depicted as the figure in the turban at left), one of the rulers of the synagogue, whose young daughter is dying.  As they set off for Jairus’s house, a woman who has had “an issue of blood twelve years” touches the garment of Jesus and is immediately healed.  Vinckboons depicts her at left, kneeling and holding the hem of Jesus’s cloak.  He speaks to her and says “Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of they plague (Mark 5:25-33).  At this same moment, a messenger (the figure shown running across the bridge) arrives with the news that Jairus’s daughter has died.  The rest of the story, though not depicted in Vinckboons’s painting, recounts Jesus going to the house of Jairus where, to the astonishment of all, he restores life to the dead girl who arises and walks around.

This is a fine example of a forest landscape by Vinckboons and probably dates from the first decade of the 17^th century.  The artist used almost the same composition, with different staffage but similar buildings, in his Forest with a Hunt of 1602 (formerly Perlman collection, Stockholm), and in his Forest with Elegant Couple (formerly Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin; destroyed in World War II) of circa 1610(?).¹  The 1602 panel is the earliest known “forest interior” by the artist and it shows a strong response to the forest scenes of Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) who had arrived in Amsterdam in 1595.²

 

1.  See K. Goosens, David Vinckboons, Soest 1977 (reprint of 1954 edition), figs. 8 and 10 (for paintings formerly in Stockholm and Berlin).
2.  See W.A. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2007, Vol. II, pp. 913-14.