Arent de Gelder

Sale, Graaf van Hogendorp, The Hague, 27 July 1751;
With Galerie Van Diemen & Co., Berlin, 1922;
With Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N.V., Amsterdam (invoice no. 2307);
Looted by Nazi authorities, July 1940;
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Lange, 3-4 December 1940, lot 71;
J. V. Winterfeld, Schloss Holte, 1978, on loan to Staatliche Museum Kassel;
Restituted from a private German collection in February 2005 to the heir of J. Goudstikker;
By whom sold, New York, Christie's, October 17, 2006 (Lot 22), for $144,000;
Acquired at the above sale by Simon Dickinson Ltd.;
From who acquired by the present collector.

Amsterdam, Galerie Goudstikker, Collectie Goudstikker, 1929, no. 11.

K. Lilienfeld, Arent de Gelder, sein Leben und seine Kunst, The Hague 1914, p. 7, no. 77, inventory p. VII;
K. Bauch, 'Rembrandts Claudius Civilis', in Oud-Holland, vol. XLII, 1925, plate 5.;
C. Hofstede de Groot, 'Een grappige vergissing,' in Oud-Holland, vol. XLVI, 1929, p.31;
G. Sluiter, '"Een loffellijke daad" : De vergeten tentoonstellingen van Aert de Gelder in 1929-30', in Kunstlicht, vol. XIII, 1992, p.13, no. 2 (erroneously swapped with The Temple Entrance);
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schuler, 1983 Landau, vol. VI, no. 2505 (as School of Rembrandt);
J.W. von Moltke, et al., Arent de Gelder, Doornspijk, 1994, p. 88, no. 57, reproduced plate 57.

 

This painting has been restored and relined fairly recently. The paint surface is stable and clean. Some of the darker colours, in the robes of the figures especially, have been rather abraded, but this does not reduce the muscular effect of the painting. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals retouching to reduce the appearance of a network of craquelure throughout the painting. There is also a horizontal line of retouching, approx. 8 cm. long, presumably to an old tear, just below the face of the man on the right. Other more dense patches of retouching are found below Christ's proper right arm, and above the heads of the child and the man wearing a turban. In overall fair condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Arent (or Aert) de Gelder was almost certainly Rembrandt's last pupil.  He started his training in his native Dordrecht, probably around 1660, under Samuel van Hoogstraeten, who had also been a Rembrandt pupil twenty years before.¹  It is probably from Hoogstraeten that De Gelder got his characteristic warm color scheme in which muted brown tones are nearly always enlivened by deep reds.  Perhaps prompted by Hoogstraeten's departure for England in September 1662, De Gelder became apprenticed to Rembrandt in Amsterdam, where he is said to have remained for two years.²  Although there is no record of him in Dordrecht until 1669, it is highly likely that he left Rembrandt's workshop several years before the latter's death in 1669.

Arent de Gelder was the only painter to adhere to the Rembrandtesque tradition in the decades following his master's death.  In fact, he maintained and developed his own highly personal interpretation of Rembrandt's style for the rest of his life, into the third decade of the 18th century.  He was predominantly a history painter, but his portraits also reveal an adaptation of Rembrandtesque precepts.  Although he is often associated with Old Testament subjects, his New Testament ones such as the present picture show the same interest in the human aspect of Bible stories: in the interaction between the depicted figures; with a greater emphasis on psychological relations than on narrative gestures.³  The inter-relationship between Christ and the young children before him, as here, is one that would have had an obvious appeal for him.

De Gelder might strike us to have been an exception in the course of art history: the lone standard bearer of an archetypically mid-17th century style for some 70 years after his Master's death, one who completely ignored changing pictorial conventions that were by the time of his dotage very far removed from his own.  De Gelder did not depend on the sale of paintings for his livelihood however, coming from a wealthy family.  Moreover, there is some evidence that he had a loyal following in Dordrecht, a city that in any case stood apart from the mainstream of Dutch painting.  It is easier to deduce an enduring Dordrecht style than it is for other artistic centers: the use of warm reds and red grounds for example is to be noted in all of Rembrandt's Dordrecht pupils, but also in classicizing artists with roots in the fijnschilder tradition, such as De Gelder's approximate Dordrecht contemporary Godfried Schalcken.  In any event, the pressures to conform to changing tastes would have been less compelling in Dordrecht than in other leading Dutch cities.  What is particularly fascinating about De Gelder's work however is that it represents to some extent a development of Rembrandt's own late style, or at the very least a logical extension of some facets of it, interpreted by De Gelder's highly personal brush.

The present work illustrates Christ's blessing of the children at Judea, as recounted by Matthew, chapter 19, verses 13-30. Only five dated pictures by de Gelder from 1690-98 are known, therefore a precise dating of his work from this period remains difficult, though it would appear that the picture must date to the 1690's. Stylistically, the painting corresponds to others from this time, such as Jacob's Dream (Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur), a similarly handled painting with monumental figures and muted color palette. 

1.  Most of what we know of De Gelder's early career is due to his townsman Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), who knew De Gelder personally.  His biography of De Gelder was published in De Groote Schouburgh..., The Hague 1718-21.
2.  According to Houbraken.
3.  This is more or less how Guido Jansen put it; see literature, 1983.