Béguinage, Belgian auction house, sells on 15 September 2015 a "17th century, attributed to Jacob Jordaens" painting. No size, no estimate, no better pictures, only extra information is that it has been partially restored in the 1960s.
It is a variation on Jordaens' wellknown early work "The daughters of Cecrops discover the child Erichthonios" (1617, now in the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts, first picture), which is based on Rubens' depiction of the same story (1616, the Liechtenstein Museum).
In the one for sale, the old woman is moved from the right side of the picture to the middle, and much closer resembles the version by Rubens. The added classical scenery to the left is also reminiscent of Rubens.
The most striking of the details provided by the auction house is the face of the woman on the right. Compared to the real one (bottom picture), it is not a simple copy, but more like another version. It is clearly done by a competent artist, but is it by Jordaens, his workshop, or someone unrelated?
Looking at another head, the problems with the version for sale become a lot more apparent. The one for sale is flat, lifeless, grey, while the real one is vibrant, full of convincing details. A worse artist, an unfinished work, a poor restoration? Perhaps a bit of all three?
The final detail provided by the auction house, the dog, doesn't make us much wiser. It does seem to indicate that the same dog has posed for both works, or that the artist of the one for sale could well imagine how the Jordaens dog would look with his head in another position.
Finally, I have made a cutout of the added old woman in the middle of the painting for sale, and put the Rubens one beneath it for comparison. The detail from the one for sale is way too small to say anything meaningful wrt the artist, but the similarities are striking, certainly coupled with the position in the painting.
So, the big questions, who painted it and what's it worth? Very hard to tell. It may be a preliminary study by Jordaens, a work by a close follower of Jordaens, or a much later copy, perhaps intended to look like a work between the Rubens and the final Jordaens. The restoration (or prior history of the work) may well have stripped much of its charm and qualities away, leaving it rather bland, although it may also be unfinished. Not knowing the size of the work obviously doesn't help either. Still, as a gamble, it should be worth 5,000 to 10,000 Euro, if you have that kind of money to gamble of course...
Since writing the above, I have received some further information. Still no estimate, but dimensions: 148 by 119 cm. And some more detailed photo's:
No comments:
Post a Comment