Johann Hulsman (active Cologne 1634-44)

The Agony in the Garden

Details

Johann Hulsman (active Cologne 1634-44)
The Agony in the Garden
signed and dated 'JHVLSMAN.F. in Colonia[?].Anno.1643.' ('JH' linked, lower centre)
oil on canvas
30 x 22¼ in. (76.2 x 56.5 cm.)

Provenance

with Heim Gallery, London, 1976.
Private collection, Munich.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 26 October 1984, lot 177.
with Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich.

Literature

For further details about literature please refer to christies.com

Barbara Herrmann, Johann Hulsman, Frankfurt, 1998, no. 8.
R. Grosche, Der Kölner Altarbau im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, with contributions from C. Pesch and H.P. Hilger, Cologne, 1978, fig. 4.
H.M. Schmidt, 'Die Kreuztragung Christi von Johann Hulsman. Zur Erwerbung eines Kölner Altarbildes aus dem Barock', in Das Rheinische Landesmuseum. Berichte aus der Arbeit des Museums, I, 1984, p. 4, illustrated.
B. Herrmann, Johann Hulsman: Ein Kölner Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt, 1998, p. 164, no. 8, fig. 6.

Herrmann notes that pre-war photographs record a large-scale painting of the same theme above the high altar of the Church of the Assumption, Cologne, now lost.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

A stylistic link to the work of Hulsman's North German contemporary Johann Liss (c. 1595/1600-1631) is underscored by the pose of the sleeping Saint Peter, which Hulsman may have known from a print by Jeremias Falck based on an untraced Dream of Saint Peter given in the inscription to Liss, and in turn very close to a work by Domenico Fetti (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches); and by the colouring and heightened chiaroscuro, which bear more than a passing resemblance to Liss's own signed, small-scale treatment of this subject on copper, albeit of different, more pared down composition (London, private collection).

More from Christie's Interiors - Masters & Makers

View All