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Lot Essay
The present picture originally formed part of a set of the Five Senses of which Sight and Hearing, are in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (nos. 799 and 800) and the other two, Touch and Smell, are missing. The set were presumably dispersed at some point after 1825 when they were documented together in the Bodendick collection.
The artist was the grandson of Karel van Mander I, after whose death in 1623, he left Delft, aged thirteen, and moved to Denmark with his mother Corelia Rooswijck. He trained in the studio of Pieter Isaacsz. until 1629 and then worked as a portrait painter to the Royal Family from 1631. His career and his artistic output was transformed when in 1635 he received financial support from Christian IV to travel to the Netherlands and Flanders. He returned to Denmark in 1638 when he was appointed court painter. The Five Senses were painted the following year (Sight is dated 1639), revealing a freedom of handling and vivacity that marked a radical departure from the rigid tradition of Danish portraiture. Van Mander is known to have spent time in the studios of both Rembrandt and Rubens and the pervading influence of both is readily apparent in the present picture.
Works by the artist are rare, the great majority of extant works belonging to Danish public and Royal collections. Only one picture by the artist appears to have come on to the market in recent years, a Black Woman in oriental dress, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 227.
The artist was the grandson of Karel van Mander I, after whose death in 1623, he left Delft, aged thirteen, and moved to Denmark with his mother Corelia Rooswijck. He trained in the studio of Pieter Isaacsz. until 1629 and then worked as a portrait painter to the Royal Family from 1631. His career and his artistic output was transformed when in 1635 he received financial support from Christian IV to travel to the Netherlands and Flanders. He returned to Denmark in 1638 when he was appointed court painter. The Five Senses were painted the following year (Sight is dated 1639), revealing a freedom of handling and vivacity that marked a radical departure from the rigid tradition of Danish portraiture. Van Mander is known to have spent time in the studios of both Rembrandt and Rubens and the pervading influence of both is readily apparent in the present picture.
Works by the artist are rare, the great majority of extant works belonging to Danish public and Royal collections. Only one picture by the artist appears to have come on to the market in recent years, a Black Woman in oriental dress, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 227.
