拍品專文
The sitters of the present, hitherto unknown, portrait have recently been identified by Julius Held, loc. cit., as Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) and his wife, Susanna van Baerle (1599-1637), and he suggests that it was probably painted by Jacob van Campen, the famous Dutch architect, circa 1635.
Huygens, secretary to the Prince of Orange, was a man of considerable importance in Dutch 17th Century political and cultural life. He was renowned as a poet, composer and even an astronomer, and was a friend of many of the artists of his time. He was one of the first to recognise the prodigious talents of the two Leideners Rembrandt and Jan Lievens, and his writings on the two young artists have been the most frequently quoted of all of his observations on the arts. Lievens, in fact, painted a portrait of Huygens around 1629 (Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse, on loan to the Rijksmuseum since 1962), which he apparently asked permission to paint while staying at Huygens' house in The Hague (Held, ibid., p.655). Other portraits of Huygens exist; the only known full-length portrait, dated 1627, was painted by Thomas de Keyser (London, National Gallery), and is generally considered to be the painting Huygens had in mind when he wrote three poems in July and August of that year mentioning a portrait done shortly before his wedding (6 April 1627); another portrait of Huygens surrounded by busts of his five children was painted in 1640 by Adriaan Hanneman (The Hague, Mauritshuis) and was probably commissioned to commemorate his wife who had died in 1637. No portraits of Susanna van Baerle are known to have survived but the format of the present picture corresponds to other 'husband-and-wife' portraits of the time and it follows that the second sitter must be Huygens' wife.
Although it can be argued that the physical appearance of Huygens in the present picture seems more youthful than earlier representations of him, Held argues that an attribution to van Campen and a date of around 1635 is convincing based on the documentation of a growing personal relationship between the two men at about this time, and on stylistic grounds. A correspondence between them is documented as early as 1632 when van Campen stated his desire to paint a portrait of Huygens to 'go with' the earlier portrait of him by Lievens. This painting, now lost, was delivered to Huygens in 1634, but Held argues (ibid, p.665) that this can hardly be the present double portrait as Susanna's name would surely have been mentioned in one of the letters exchanged regarding the picture. Huygens makes reference, in writings of 1634 and 1635, to a sheet representing a 'sideways portrait' of him and his wife by van Campen, which could certainly have served as a preliminary drawing for the present picture. Held also points to a growing relationship between them during the year 1635 when Huygens was consulting van Campen on the construction of his stately home. Held cites stylistic similarities with other works by van Campen, pointing to the striking affinity in the treatment of the figures in his 1628 work of 'Diogenes looking for an Honest Man' (Utrecht, Centraal Museum; ibid., fig.14) with Huygens and his wife in the present picture. He notes 'the startling similarity between Huygens' profile and that of the young questioner, with his shock of hair similarly resembling a hairpiece', and compares Susanna's head to the smiling young woman on the right in the Utrecht canvas, noting the similar physiognomic detail 'from the long nose and the sharp, if simplified transition from the nose to the eyebrows' (ibid., p.667)
Huygens, secretary to the Prince of Orange, was a man of considerable importance in Dutch 17th Century political and cultural life. He was renowned as a poet, composer and even an astronomer, and was a friend of many of the artists of his time. He was one of the first to recognise the prodigious talents of the two Leideners Rembrandt and Jan Lievens, and his writings on the two young artists have been the most frequently quoted of all of his observations on the arts. Lievens, in fact, painted a portrait of Huygens around 1629 (Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse, on loan to the Rijksmuseum since 1962), which he apparently asked permission to paint while staying at Huygens' house in The Hague (Held, ibid., p.655). Other portraits of Huygens exist; the only known full-length portrait, dated 1627, was painted by Thomas de Keyser (London, National Gallery), and is generally considered to be the painting Huygens had in mind when he wrote three poems in July and August of that year mentioning a portrait done shortly before his wedding (6 April 1627); another portrait of Huygens surrounded by busts of his five children was painted in 1640 by Adriaan Hanneman (The Hague, Mauritshuis) and was probably commissioned to commemorate his wife who had died in 1637. No portraits of Susanna van Baerle are known to have survived but the format of the present picture corresponds to other 'husband-and-wife' portraits of the time and it follows that the second sitter must be Huygens' wife.
Although it can be argued that the physical appearance of Huygens in the present picture seems more youthful than earlier representations of him, Held argues that an attribution to van Campen and a date of around 1635 is convincing based on the documentation of a growing personal relationship between the two men at about this time, and on stylistic grounds. A correspondence between them is documented as early as 1632 when van Campen stated his desire to paint a portrait of Huygens to 'go with' the earlier portrait of him by Lievens. This painting, now lost, was delivered to Huygens in 1634, but Held argues (ibid, p.665) that this can hardly be the present double portrait as Susanna's name would surely have been mentioned in one of the letters exchanged regarding the picture. Huygens makes reference, in writings of 1634 and 1635, to a sheet representing a 'sideways portrait' of him and his wife by van Campen, which could certainly have served as a preliminary drawing for the present picture. Held also points to a growing relationship between them during the year 1635 when Huygens was consulting van Campen on the construction of his stately home. Held cites stylistic similarities with other works by van Campen, pointing to the striking affinity in the treatment of the figures in his 1628 work of 'Diogenes looking for an Honest Man' (Utrecht, Centraal Museum; ibid., fig.14) with Huygens and his wife in the present picture. He notes 'the startling similarity between Huygens' profile and that of the young questioner, with his shock of hair similarly resembling a hairpiece', and compares Susanna's head to the smiling young woman on the right in the Utrecht canvas, noting the similar physiognomic detail 'from the long nose and the sharp, if simplified transition from the nose to the eyebrows' (ibid., p.667)