The Rafael Valls Sale, Part II
The Rafael Valls Sale, Part II
Jan Weenix
A portrait of the merchant A. van Goor by a harbour, with a servant, a dog, and a monkey
Lot Closed
December 16, 02:17 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Jan Weenix
Amsterdam 1642 (?) - 1719
A portrait of the merchant A. van Goor by a harbour, with a servant, a dog, and a monkey
signed and dated upper left: J Weenix / f1686-; and inscribed on the paper in the hand of the servant: [...] Sig AV.Goor / [...]
oil on canvas
unframed: 78.5 x 69.8 cm.; 30⅞ x 27½ in.;
framed: 96 x 87.7 cm.; 37⅞ x 34½ in.
His posthumous sale, Amsterdam, C. Ploos van Amstel, H. de Winter and J. Yver, 15 April 1778, lot 124, for 72 florins to Van Neck;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, J. Yver, 1 October 1778, lot 168, for 40 florins;
Veuve J.E. Fiseau;
His sale, Amsterdam, Philippus van der Schley, 30–31 August 1797, lot 251;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Clerk, Koning, Gijselman, 7 November 1826, lot 70, for 40 florins to Kluitenaar;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, 6 July 1829, lot 129, for 55 florins to Kluitenaar;
Baron Roosen, Maastricht;
Mathieu Neven (1796–1878), Cologne;
His sale, Cologne, De Brauwere, 17–22 March 1879, lot 242, for 2,500 marks;
Baron Sloet van de Beele (1806–1890) and H.J. van Wisselingh (1816–1884);
Their sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 9–10 February 1892, lot 144, for 350 florins to Delahaye;
Private collection, Germany;
Until sold, Zürich, Koller, 23 September 2011, lot 3059.
A.A. Van Wagenberg-Ter Hoven, Jan Baptist Weenix. The Paintings. Master of the Dutch Hunting Still Life, Zwolle 2018, pp. 151–53, no. 57, reproduced p. 152.
Signed and dated, this portrait of A. van Goor shows the ship owner and merchant proudly gesturing towards a harbour, where a large ship is docked. Little is known about A. van Goor (sometimes misspelled in the sales entries as 'Van Gool') but here we see him dressed in rich yellow and blue silks, beneath which he wears an undergarment finely embroidered in gold.
The composition is made up of several recognisable components: a colossal statue of Giambologna's sculpture of the Rape of the Sabines is visible in the middle distance (Loggia, Florence), the spaniel on the right is based on a drawing by Weenix in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem1, and the monkey is directly lifted from his striking oil sketch in the Riksmuseum, Amsterdam.2
Dr Fred Meijer has pointed out similarities between this portrait and Weenix's slightly later portrait of Abraham van Bronckhorst in the Amsterdam Historisch Museum, dated 1688.3
1 https://rkd.nl/explore/images/22384
2 https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-5053
3 Inv. no. SA 8345; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SA_8345-Abraham_van_Bronckhorst_(1656-%3F).jpg
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