Pieter de Grebber

Julius Unger Canstatt;
His sale, Berlin, Paul Cassirer und Hugo Helbing, 21 March 1917, lot 12;
Ivan Traugott, Stockholm;
Dr. Albert Welcker, Amsterdam;
Alfred Brod, 1958.

London, Alfred Brod Gallery, Annual Spring Exhibition of Old Masters, 11 April – 10 May 1958, no. 18;
Providence 1964, no. 10;
Allentown, Allentown Art Museum, Seventeenth Century Painters of Haarlem, 2 April – 13 June 1965, no. 32;
New York, Finch College 1966, no. 15;
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972, temporary loan;
Birmingham 1995, no. 9;
New Orleans 1997, no. 22;
Baltimore 1999, no. 21.

Der Kunstmarkt, vol. XIV, no. 27 (April 1917), p. 158;
The Burlington Magazine, vol. 100, no. 663 (June 1958), p. 221, reproduced p. 222, fig. 38;
Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, 10 April 1958, p. 12, reproduced;
Seventeenth Century Painters of Haarlem, exhibition catalogue, Allentown 1965, p. 29, cat. no. 32, reproduced;
New Orleans 1997, pp. 55-57, cat. no. 22, reproduced p. 56;
Baltimore 1999, pp. 54-56, cat. no. 21, reproduced p. 55.

In this sympathetic bust-length portrait, a mysterious light source illuminates the delicate features, expressive eyes, loosely bound hair, and the modest attire of an unknown woman.  Apart from her rosy lips, flushed cheeks, and blush fabric near her neck the color palette used is restrained.  The format, color, and contrasts of light within this painting suggest that De Grebber was influenced by the intimate and solemn portraits painted by Rembrandt and Lievens in the 1620s.  Interestingly enough, a label fragment on the reverse indicates that the work was thought to have been painted by Lievens at one point in the past.   

Pieter de Grebber is perhaps best known for his paintings with historical or religious subjects.  While the present sitter’s heavenward gaze and pious spirit might suggest a devotional quality, a scene more typical of the artist’s religious work has been preserved under the surface of the Weldon portrait.  It appears de Grebber reused an old panel that once depicted the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.  An X-ray image fully reveals this narrative and illustrates how de Grebber rotated the orientation of the panel from horizontal to vertical (fig. 1).  Details of the work underneath remain faintly visible to the naked eye: the angel expelling the pair is faintly visible in front of the woman’s shawl and the soft strokes in the woman’s head correspond to the figure of Eve.