A shepherd in a wide brimmed hat holding a crook

細節

Isack Jansz. van Ostade (Haarlem 1621-1649)
A shepherd in a wide brimmed hat holding a crook
signed and dated 'Isack van Ostade 1642' (centre right)
oil on panel
15¾ x 12½ in. (40 x 31.8 cm.)

來源

B. Ocke, Leiden; sale, Leeu, Leiden, 21 April 1817, lot 98, 'Un jeune berger, un chapeau sur la tete, et tenant une houlette. Très beau tableau', erroneously described as on canvas (22 florins to Spruijt).
Charles Joseph François Spruyt (1769-1851).
with van Diemen, Berlin, 1927, where acquired by
August Neuerberg, Hamburg, and by descent to the present owner.

出版

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., London, 1910, III, p. 539, no. 301d, 'A Young Shepherd - He wears a hat and holds a shepherd's staff', following the 1817 cataloguing as being on canvas.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍場告示

This frame has kindly been loaned by Paul Mitchell Ltd.
Please contact a member of the department for details.

拍品專文

This is one of only a handful of known single figure 'tronies' executed by the artist and it is arguably his most successful. Isack took up the theme only briefly at the outset of the 1640s, supposedly in response to the single figure pictures being produced by his brother Adriaen at around the same time. While Adriaen's subjects were strictly limited to humble peasants, Isack widened his range to include the likes of the dignified shepherd depicted here. This was a pivotal moment in Isack's career for, as Bernard Schnackenburg has pointed out, his artistic vision was transformed in the early 1640s by the influence of the Dutch Italianates brought on by Pieter van Laer's return from Italy in 1638: 'Isack'’s style underwent a complete transformation, taking on an Italianate delicacy in the handling of figures.' (B. Schnackenburg, Grove Dictionary of Art, ed. J. Turner, London, 1996, XXIII, p. 613). This sense of delicacy is beautifully evinced by the present panel in which the shepherd is rendered in soft light with remarkable economy, boldness and rapidity of brushwork. The only other strictly similar work by Isack is the Peasant in a wide brimmed hat (undated; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), which must have been executed around the same moment. Two other 'tronies' - a Self-Portrait of 1641 (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) and a Smoker (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), are different in character and appear to lack the quality of execution demonstrated here.

The attribution has kindly been confirmed by Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg who considers this 'a very fine painting by Isack van Ostade'.