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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Mr. Malcolm Waddingham for confirming the attribution of this hitherto unpublished picture; he dates it to 1648-50 while the artist was working in Rome.
Sweerts was one of the most fascinating if enigmatic of all 17th Century artists. He is first documented in Rome in 1646, where he was both an Aggregato of the Academy of Saint Luke and one of the Virtuosi al Pantheon. In 1656 he is documented in Brussels, and in 1658 he moved to Amsterdam, before departing for the island of Goa in the East Indies as a lay member of the French order of missionaries. He was not to return, and died there in 1664.
The subject of the present picture is also found in a painting by Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (S. Slive, Frans Hals, London, 1974, II, pl. 47, and III, p. 16, no. 24). Slive's commentary on the Hals is equally valid as an explanation of the present picture: 'The boy has inverted his glass to demonstrate that he has drained it so thoroughly that not a drop will fall on his fingernail' (Slive, loc. cit.).
It is possible that Sweerts also intended the image to be thought of as an allegory of the sense of Touch. Other paintings by Sweerts which may represent senses include a Man with a Pipe (Taste?) in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., a Young Woman holding a Sheet of Music (Hearing?) in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, and a Young Boy holding a Nosegay (Smell?), sold in these Rooms 10 April 1981, lot 81 and now in the Museo Thyssen, Madrid (J.M. Pita Andrade and M. del Mar Borobia Guerrero, Old Masters. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, 1992, p. 437, no. 385, illustrated). Differences of style, but above all of size, do not allow for the possibility that all these pictures once formed a series, althought the present picture is very close in scale to the Thyssen painting, which measures 76.2 x 61.6cm..
The dramatic use of chiaroscuro, especially on the face and hands, allied to the generally dark tonality and the realism of the features are entirely typical of Sweerts. So is the turban and the bohemian costume of the man, who could even have been a fellow-artist, and in any event, wears the sort of outfit seen in Sweerts' various representations of artists' studios.
Sweerts was one of the most fascinating if enigmatic of all 17th Century artists. He is first documented in Rome in 1646, where he was both an Aggregato of the Academy of Saint Luke and one of the Virtuosi al Pantheon. In 1656 he is documented in Brussels, and in 1658 he moved to Amsterdam, before departing for the island of Goa in the East Indies as a lay member of the French order of missionaries. He was not to return, and died there in 1664.
The subject of the present picture is also found in a painting by Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (S. Slive, Frans Hals, London, 1974, II, pl. 47, and III, p. 16, no. 24). Slive's commentary on the Hals is equally valid as an explanation of the present picture: 'The boy has inverted his glass to demonstrate that he has drained it so thoroughly that not a drop will fall on his fingernail' (Slive, loc. cit.).
It is possible that Sweerts also intended the image to be thought of as an allegory of the sense of Touch. Other paintings by Sweerts which may represent senses include a Man with a Pipe (Taste?) in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., a Young Woman holding a Sheet of Music (Hearing?) in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, and a Young Boy holding a Nosegay (Smell?), sold in these Rooms 10 April 1981, lot 81 and now in the Museo Thyssen, Madrid (J.M. Pita Andrade and M. del Mar Borobia Guerrero, Old Masters. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, 1992, p. 437, no. 385, illustrated). Differences of style, but above all of size, do not allow for the possibility that all these pictures once formed a series, althought the present picture is very close in scale to the Thyssen painting, which measures 76.2 x 61.6cm..
The dramatic use of chiaroscuro, especially on the face and hands, allied to the generally dark tonality and the realism of the features are entirely typical of Sweerts. So is the turban and the bohemian costume of the man, who could even have been a fellow-artist, and in any event, wears the sort of outfit seen in Sweerts' various representations of artists' studios.