Site Loader
Rock Street, San Francisco
  • Current Language:
  • fr
  • Select Language:

Ernst De Jongh (1934-2016)


THE PROPERTY OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY SOLD TO ESTABLISH THE BORTHWICK-NORTON BEQUEST

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL

measurements note
80 by 67.3 cm., 31 1/2 by 26 1/2 in.

bears signature centre right: Rembran... f...t 166...

Oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Collection J.P.B. Le Brun, Paris,
Collection Sir Walter Farquhar,London, by 1894,
Sir C.L. Eastlake and others, their sale, Christie's, London, 2 June 1894, lot 115, for £703:10s. to M.H. Colnaghi,
With C. Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1895,
Collection C. de Beistegui, Paris,
With T. Lawrie and Co., London,
Collection W.A. Coats, Esq., Dalskairth, Scotland by 1901 until at least 1923,
With Knoedler, London, 1929,
Collection B.F. Jones, Esq. of Sewickly, Pennsylvania, by 1935,
Collection Goekoop de Jong, The Hague,
Mrs. E.S. Borthwick Norton, her sale, Christie's London , 15May 1953, lot 83, to Webley for £5,000 (as Rembrandt),

EXHIBITED

London, Forbes and Paterson, February 1902, No. 5,
The Galleries of the Society of British Artists, 1927,
The Hague, Kleykamp, 1927.

LITERATURE

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. VII, London 1836, p. 168, cat. no. 526,
Catalogus van de Sedelmeyer Gallery, vol. II, Paris 1895, no. 29,
W. Bode, C. Hofstede de Groot, The complete work of Rembrandt, Vol. VI, Paris 1901, p.194, No. 481,
A Collection of Pictures by Dutch Masters of the XVIIth Century, Forbes and Paterson, London 1902, p. 4, no.5.
Catalogus van de verzameling van W.A.Coats, Glasgow 1904, Afb.29,
A. Rosenberg, W. A. Valentiner, Klassiker der Kunst Rembrandt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1908, cat. no. B.481, reproduced p.491,
A. von Wurzbach, Niederlandisches Kunstler-Lexicon, Vol. II, Vienna and Leipzig 1910, p. 397,
C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonne of the works of the most eminent Dutch Painters of the seventeenth century, vol. VI, London 1916, pp. 251-52, cat. no. 497,
D.S.Meldrum, Rembrandt's Paintings, London 1923, p.200, reproduced plate 3642.
K. Bauch, Rembrandt Gemalde, Berlin 1966, p.26, reproduced plate 525,
P. Lacaldana, L'Opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt, 1969, p.130, reproduced,
A. Bredius (rev. H. Gerson), Rembrandt, the complete edition of the paintings, London 1969, cat. no. Br. 393, reproduced p.301,
J. Bruyn et al. (Rembrandt Research Project), Letter - Missing Rembrandts, in Burlington Magazine, vol. CXII, no. 805, April 1970, p.239, reproduced p.241, fig. 63.

NOTE

Only recently rediscovered, the present work had been sought in April 1970 by Dr. Ernst van de Wetering and his colleagues, working on the Rembrandt Research Project (since published, J. Bruyn, B. Haak., S.H.Levie, P.J.J. van Thiel, E. van de Wetering, Stichting Foundation, Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, The Hague, Boston, London 1982-89) requesting any help from readers of the Burlington Magazine (see Literature) as to the whereabouts of a number of paintings attributed to Rembrandt.

After recent first hand inspection Dr. van de Wetering has now suggested an attribution to Nicolaes Maes, finding it close in style to his work of circa 1651-2. He notes that both the canvas and the groundlayer are very similar to An old man wearing a linen head band (previously Count Wachtmeister collection, Sweden) also produced in Rembrandt's studio at the start of the 1650s1. This view is tentatively supported by Dr. Léon Krempel who compares the present work to Maes' Frau mit drei Kindren in a private collection in the Netherlands and which he dates to circa 16532.

A copy of a technical analysis conducted by C.M Groen of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage in Amsterdam is available for inspection and accompanies this lot.

1 see A. Bredius, Rembrandt Gemälde, Vienna 1935, no. 263,
2 see L. Krempel, Nicolaes Maes, Petersberg 2000, cat. no. D40, reproduced plate II and fig. 5.
Omschrijving: Johannes Ludovicus Matheus Lauweriks Roermond 1864 - Amsterdam 1932 Een collectie van tweeenzeventig houtsneden, waarvan zesenvijftig opgezet in passe-partouts, vele daarvan voor 'Licht en Waarheid', Orgaan van de Vereeniging 'Wie denkt overwint' en voor 'Architectura', Orgaan voor het Genootschap 'Architectura et Amicitia' Daarbij een in zilververf uitgevoerd ornamentontwerp in de 'Wendingen' stijl. Literatuur: Ernst Braches, Nieuwe Kunst, toegepaste grafiek, documentatie, Amsterdam, 2006 N.B. Lauweriks groeide eerst op in Roermond, later in Amsterdam ten huize van de architect P.J.H. Cuypers (Centraal Station/Rijksmuseum), voor wie Lauweriks' vader al sinds 1854 als hoofd van het beeldhouwatelier werkte. Na een opleiding (1883/87) aan de Rijksnormaalschool voor Teekenonderwijs studeerde Lauweriks 's avonds aan de Rijksacademie, terwijl hij overdag op het bureau van Cuypers werkte (1887/95). Daar ontmoette hij in 1889 K.P.C. de Bazel. De betrokkenheid van beide jonge kunstenaars met het opkomend anarchisme en de theosofie leidde tot een breuk met de streng katholieke Cuypers. Lauweriks en de Bazel richtten samen in 1895 het 'Meubelatelier, Atelier voor Architectuur, Kunstnijverheid en Decoratieve kunst' op. Voor het anarchistische blad Licht en Waarheid, Orgaan van de Vereeniging 'Wie denkt overwint', vervaardigden beide kunstenaar talloze houtsneden/illustraties. Naast hun werk voor het atelier vervulden De Bazel en Lauweriks bestuursfuncties in het genootschap 'Architectura en Amicitia' en gaven zij een cursus in 'teekenen, kunstgeschiedenis en schoonheidsleer' aan de Vahana school, van de theosofische loge waartoe ze behoorden. Lauweriks was van 1900 tot 1904 leraar aan de Kunstnijverheidsschool te Haarlem. Van 1904 tot 1909 gaf Lauweriks les aan de Kunstgewerbeschule van Peter Behrens te Dusseldorf. De Duitse maecenas Karl Ernst Osthaus slaagde er in Lauweriks naar Hagen te laten komen, waar Lauweriks tot 1916 als architect en leraar werkte. Na zijn terugkeer in Nederland was Lauweriks van1916 tot 1924 directeur van de Quellinusschool te Amsterdam. Vanaf 1918 tot 1926 maakte Lauweriks deel uit van de redactie van het blad 'Wendingen', waarvoor hij tevens de zo kenmerkende typografie verzorgde
a pair of double-sided portrait studies: two men and two women all metalpoint and black chalk on prepared paper 'tafeletten' (2) each circa 75 by 55mm. These extremely finely executed portrait drawings belong to a long-standing Dutch tradition of minutely drawn studies made on small prepared tablets of paper or vellum ('tafeletten'). This medium was generally used for rapid, rather unofficial sketches, which were often subsequently obliterated by re-grounding the little sheet to make it usable again, artists would take a small sketchbook of such sheets with them wherever they went, regrounding and reusing the sheets as necessary. That this was common practice in 17th-century Holland was first recognised by Ernst van de Wetering, who published an important article on the subject ('Verwenen tekeningen en het gebruik van afwisbare tekenplankjes en 'tafeletten'', Oud Holland, CV, no.4 (1991), pp.210-27). One of the greatest exponents of this type of drawing was Hendrick Goltzius, who made a number of extraordinarily fine drawings on 'tafeletten', most but not all of them portraits, between about 1580 and 1615. Despite their considerable stylistic affinities with Goltzius' works, the present examples are not, however, by him, and appear to date from slightly later, perhaps around 1620-40. Their attribution is problematic, as is often the case with drawings in this medium, of which so few have survived. A possible solution is, however, offered by the existence of two other drawings, apparently by the same hand, in the British Museum (inv. nos.1895-9-15-1220/21), which Hind catalogued in 1931 under the name of Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638) (see A.M. Hind, Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists... in the British Museum, vol. iv, London 1931, p.152, cats.Add.1 and 2). Although no comparable drawings in this medium are known that can be connected with any painting by Moreelse, and therefore securely attributed to him, there are certain general similarities in type between the present drawings and his painted portraits, suggesting that the traditional attribution of the British Museum drawings does indeed deserve consideration, both for those drawings and for the present pair. It should also be noted that Moreelse's name was associated with several small portrait drawings on 'tafeletten' in 19th-century sale catalogues (see Jfr. Dr. C.H. de Jonge, Paulus Moreelse, Assen 1938, p.79, nos.27g and 27h).
Robert Hodgins
SOUTH AFRICAN 1920-2010
Mask Head
signed with the artist's initials; inscribed with the artist's name, the date, the title and the medium on the reverse
mixed media assemblage
50 by 38cm

In 1954, Robert Hodgins took up a lectureship at the Pretoria Technical College (now Tshwane University of Technology). Post-war South Africa
was, initially at least, ‘like heaven’ for Hodgins, who had experienced wartime austerity in London. His work from this period comprised mainly
idealised male and female nudes. An admirer of the Italian Quattrocento artists, his early paintings, notes art historian Elizabeth Rankin, looked
to ‘the certainty of past art’. In 1958, Hodgins took a leave of absence to paint and experimented with techniques like sandpapering. That same
year artist Ernst de Jong returned to Pretoria from studies at the University of Oklahoma. His enthusiasm for Pollock and Abstract
Expressionism rubbed off on Hodgins, whose work immediately headed off in a new direction. He experimented with paint, for instance pouring
buckets of Duco onto flat surfaces, and incorporated gold leaf, nails and wire into his oil-based compositions. These new works, of which the
present lot, from 1960, is characteristic, were ‘harsher in form and colour than his sensuous nudes and explored oil paint in its own right,
squeezing it out of the tubes to make lines of the surface’. As is evident in his use of a mask in this composition, Hodgins did not entirely shun
figuration in his expressive assemblage pieces. This beautifully restored lot is a striking example of Hodgins embracing uncertainty and
charting new directions during his felicitous early Pretoria years.
Sean O’Toole
Elizabeth Rankin (1986). ‘Biographical Notes Based on Reminiscences of the Artist,’ in Robert Hodgins: Images 1953–1986, Johannesburg:
Standard Bank, no page number.
Ibid., no page number.

Rapport Exclusif : Le Marché de l'Art Africain en 2024

Un guide complet pour comprendre les opportunités et les tendances du marché de l’art africain en 2024. Accédez à des informations exclusives.

Nous respectons votre vie privée. Pas de spam.