JAN BOECKHORST, CALLED LANGE JAN | The fat ox

Probably Rogier le Witer (circa 1591–1678);
and by inheritance to his daughter, Maria Catharina Le Witer, (1633–1702), and by descent to
Ferdinand A.D.J.A., Baron Dubois Wellens (1767–1848), Antwerp;
His posthumous sale, Antwerp, P.H. Carpentier, 25 June 1849, lot 5, as [Willem] Van Herp, Le Boeuf Gras, for 1,000 Belgian Francs;
Acquired at the sale by Theodore Bosschaert (1827–57), a member of the Du Bois family; 
By inheritance to Louis du Bois de Caters;
By inheritance to Douairière Bosschaert du Bois, Antwerp;
By inheritance to Raymond, Baron de Borrekens, Antwerp;
Thence by descent, from circa 1930 until the 1990s at Kasteel Vorselaer.

Antwerp, Trésors de l'Art Flamand du Moyen Age au XVIII^ieme siècle, 1930, no. 349 (as Anonymous);
Antwerp, unknown location or title, 1935, no. 50 (as School of Jordaens). 

Trésor de l'Art Flamand du Moyen Age au XVIII^ieme siècle. Mémorial de l'exposition de 1930, Antwerp 1932, vol. I, p. 129, no. 349;
G. Isarlo, 'Les trois le Nain et leur suite', in La Renaissance, March 1938, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 8, no. 30, reproduced fig. 9 (as Anonymous);
J.S. Held, 'Nachträge zum Werk des Johann Bockhorst (alias Jan Boeckhorst)', in Westfalen, vol. LXIII, 1985, pp. 25–26, reproduced fig. 19;
H. Vlieghe, 'The Cardiff Cartoons: Boeckhorst, after all', letter to the editor in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXIX, no. 1014, September 1987, p. 599, reproduced fig. 39;
H. Vlieghe, 'Stilentwicklung in Boeckhorsts Oeuvre', in J. Luckhardt (ed.), Jan Boeckhorst 1604–1668. Maler der Rubenszeit, exh. cat., Freren 1990, p. 66, reproduced fig. 34;
M. Galen, Johann Boeckhorst. Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Hamburg 2012, pp. 66–67 and 527, cat. no. 6, reproduced p. 67.

The reverse of the panel has 5 horizontal lines of supportive blocks along old panel joins along which there has historically been some movement. There are some old discoloured retouchings along these horizontal panel joins. The painting is covered with an old and discoloured varnish. There are some surface scuffs and scratches and some very minor frame abrasion along the upper and central left margin. There are no major damages visible bar a vertical hairline crack running from the central panel join for 3 inches through the left eye of the boy in red, along which there are some discoloured, old restorations. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals very little intervention, only minor, scattered restorations. For a panel of this size and age the picture appears to be in remarkably good condition. Offered in a gilt wood frame with minor losses.
"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."

The inscription in Flemish on the scroll reads:-
Ey siet eens Vrinden siet, wat macht den gild os bate
dat hy een rosen hoet mach dragen achter straten
al wort hy schoon gestreelt, ‘tis voor een corte wyl
eylas van achter volcht den slager met den byl.
Hoe dom is menich mensch; sy rasen, spelen, woelen
en van dat comen sal, en isser geen gevoelen.
Maer hoort een nutte les, voor alle vuyl beiagh
peyst staech op uw vertreck, oft aen den Jongsten dach.’ ('Hey, look here, friends, see what the golden ox benefits from wearing a rosy hat in the streets. Even though he is petted sweetly, it is only for a short time, because alas, behind him follows the butcher with his axe. How stupid are most people; they rush, play and are busy, but they have no sense of what is to come. Therefore listen to this useful lesson, before all vile pursuits, think carefully about your own end, or about the final day.')

Catalogued as by Willem van Herp in the 1849 sale catalogue, and as anonymous when exhibited in 1930, this unusual picture was tentatively ascribed to Jacob Jordaens in 1935, before the great Rubens scholar Julius Held identified it in the 1980s as an early work by Boeckhorst, a painter from Westphalia who trained in Antwerp, moving there circa 1626, and studying with Jacob Jordaens and/or Rubens. Maria Galen noted that the costume of the flautist dated it before 1640, and suggested that it was most likely painted in the second half of the 1630s, circa 1636–38. The subject, a variant of the Vanitas theme, no doubt with origins in folklore, was first codified by Jacob Cats in his book of Emblems entitled Proteus ofte Minne-beelden, verandert in Sinne-Beelden, published in 1627, and illustrated by an engraving designed by Adriaen van de Venne, who supplied many illustrations to Cats. The painting follows Van de Venne's print in reverse: musicians precede the innocent bull garlanded with flowers, followed by the butcher with his axe, the instrument of the bull's intended demise, swung over his shoulder.

Hans Vlieghe first published this picture in 1987 in the context of the so-called Cardiff Cartoons: full-scale tapestry cartoons whose attribution to Rubens, the name under which the National Museum of Wales had acquired them, was widely disputed and is now not generally accepted; he did so in support of his attribution of them to Boeckhorst. Vlieghe preferred a slightly later dating than Galen, assigning it to the 1640s, at the same time as the Cardiff Cartoons. 

This picture probably shares the same illustrious provenance since the mid-17th Century, and certainly since the first half of the 19th Century, as the pendant portraits by Jacob Jordaens of Rogier le Witer and Catharina Behagel, and of his mother Magdelena de Cuyper, sold in these Rooms, 12 July 2001, lots 36 and 37, for £2,000,000 and £850,000 respectively, and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. All three were in the Du Bois sale in 1849, along with a Flight into Egypt by Jordaens still in the possession of the family, in which the Holy Family is preceded by a bullock who regards the viewer with a look of benign and placid innocence, so it is perhaps not surprising that this too came to be thought to be by Jordaens. The exact order of the provenance subsequent to the 1849 sale is not entirely certain: usually Louis du Boi de Caters is given as preceding Th. Bosschaert; but Bosschaert's name is annotated in one of the two surviving copies of the sale catalogue as the buyer.