Lot Essay
While there seems to be agreement on the general development of Jan Lievens' early work, opinions differ as to a more precise chronology and when that chronology should start. But it is here proposed that the present lot - which is unpublished - is one of Lievens' earliest paintings.
In discussing the attribution of the Raleigh Esther's Feast, the Rembrandt Research Project characterised the two signed paintings at Warsaw - the Youth with a Torch and the Youth with Coal Embers - and the Besançon Homo bulla as displaying 'a purely Utrecht character ... This is combined with a subdued colour-scheme, a curious clumsiness in the design, and a modelling that is often produced with long, thick strokes and at some points ... quite coarse and somewhat confused highlights' (see The Rembrandt Research Project, J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, The Hague, 1982, pp. 453-4); this description could to a degree also apply to the present lot, which is remarkable for its imposing, confident presence. The Rembrandt Research Project, basing itself on Orlers' testimony of 1641 (for a recent translation of the relevant passage, see C. Vogelaar et al., Rembrandt & Lievens in Leiden, Leiden, 1991, p. 138) that Lievens was a prodigy, consider the Warsaw pictures to be his earliest works executed circa 1623.
Klessmann had earlier given 1623 as the date for what he believed was Lievens' earliest production; he dated the Warsaw pictures circa 1625 (see R. Klessmann, in the catalogue of the exhibition, Jan Lievens ein Maler im Schatten Rembrandts, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick, 1979, nos. 1 and 6-7), with which Sumowski agreed (see W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, III, Landau/Pfalz, 1983, p. 1791); for Sumowski, Lievens' earliest painting was executed in 1623-5; the painting, which he believed was executed then, was offered in these Rooms, 8 July 1994, lot 86.
As there are no dated works by Lievens before 1627 any proposed chronology of extant works must remain hypothetical. But a date of circa 1623-5 would seem acceptable for the present lot.
No precise prototype for the pose of the young man has been traced among the work of Utrecht Caravaggists, but lutes being tuned are the subjects of paintings by both Terbrugghen and his circle and Honthorst, whose Lady tuning a Lute at Fontainebleau is dated 1624, see Benedict Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd ed. revised and enlarged by Luisa Vertova, Oxford, 1979, III, figs. 1074, 1148, and 1270.
The treatment of the music scores anticipate that of the folio in the Vanitas Still Life of 1627, in which a violin is also depicted, see Sumowski, op. cit., fig. 1299; comparable too are the Gospels in the Four Evangelists, see Sumowski, figs. 1229-1232, where dated circa 1626-7.
In discussing the attribution of the Raleigh Esther's Feast, the Rembrandt Research Project characterised the two signed paintings at Warsaw - the Youth with a Torch and the Youth with Coal Embers - and the Besançon Homo bulla as displaying 'a purely Utrecht character ... This is combined with a subdued colour-scheme, a curious clumsiness in the design, and a modelling that is often produced with long, thick strokes and at some points ... quite coarse and somewhat confused highlights' (see The Rembrandt Research Project, J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, The Hague, 1982, pp. 453-4); this description could to a degree also apply to the present lot, which is remarkable for its imposing, confident presence. The Rembrandt Research Project, basing itself on Orlers' testimony of 1641 (for a recent translation of the relevant passage, see C. Vogelaar et al., Rembrandt & Lievens in Leiden, Leiden, 1991, p. 138) that Lievens was a prodigy, consider the Warsaw pictures to be his earliest works executed circa 1623.
Klessmann had earlier given 1623 as the date for what he believed was Lievens' earliest production; he dated the Warsaw pictures circa 1625 (see R. Klessmann, in the catalogue of the exhibition, Jan Lievens ein Maler im Schatten Rembrandts, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick, 1979, nos. 1 and 6-7), with which Sumowski agreed (see W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, III, Landau/Pfalz, 1983, p. 1791); for Sumowski, Lievens' earliest painting was executed in 1623-5; the painting, which he believed was executed then, was offered in these Rooms, 8 July 1994, lot 86.
As there are no dated works by Lievens before 1627 any proposed chronology of extant works must remain hypothetical. But a date of circa 1623-5 would seem acceptable for the present lot.
No precise prototype for the pose of the young man has been traced among the work of Utrecht Caravaggists, but lutes being tuned are the subjects of paintings by both Terbrugghen and his circle and Honthorst, whose Lady tuning a Lute at Fontainebleau is dated 1624, see Benedict Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd ed. revised and enlarged by Luisa Vertova, Oxford, 1979, III, figs. 1074, 1148, and 1270.
The treatment of the music scores anticipate that of the folio in the Vanitas Still Life of 1627, in which a violin is also depicted, see Sumowski, op. cit., fig. 1299; comparable too are the Gospels in the Four Evangelists, see Sumowski, figs. 1229-1232, where dated circa 1626-7.