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Lot Essay
As noted by Marijke de Kinkelder of the RKD in 1999, this is an early work by Berchem, dating from circa 1646-9, a preparatory drawing for which is in the British Museum, London. The handling of the trees is closely comparable to that in three other works of the period: those of 1646 in the Kunsthalle, Bremen (wrongly recorded by Hofstede, op. cit., no. 332, as dated 1676), and sold, Sotheby's, Monte Carlo, 22 June 1985, lot 144, and that of 1647 sold, Sotheby's, London, 27 March 1974, lot 23. The figure of the kneeling Daifilo recurs in reverse in a painting of 1649 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. It is interesting that in the past this picture was thought, erroneously, to be a collaboration with Jan Baptist Weenix, as it has previously been believed that Berchem was the former's pupil. Although such a relationship seems in reality improbable, Berchem was at this period certainly influenced by Weenix, who had recently returned from Italy, and that debt is certainly visible in the rather exotic elegance of the protagonists in the present work.
The subject, taken from Granida, Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's pastoral play of 1605, was evidently one that appealed to Berchem at the time. He employed it in two other works: that of 1646 sold, Dorotheum, Vienna, 17 March 1970, lot 11, and that, undated but of the same period, sold in these Rooms, 17 February 1950, lot 20. Hooft's story told how Granida, the daughter of an eastern monarch and betrothed to Prince Tisiphernes, lost her way out hunting. She came upon the shepherd, Daifilo, and his mistress, Dorilea, who had just quarrelled; Daifilo fetched water in a shell for the princess to drink and, in so doing, fell in love with her (the moment depicted in the present picture, taken from Act 1, scene 3). He subsequently followed Granida to court and, after several adventures together, fled to the woods to live a pastoral life, eventually (after the yielding of Tisiphernes' claim) living proverbially happily ever after.
The provenance of this lot has in the past been slightly confused. Possibly the picture recorded in the sale of the artist and dealer Jacques de Roore (which was bought by his partner, the artist Gerard Hoet), it subsequently appeared at the anonymous sale of the collections of E.M. Engelberts and Jan Tersteeg on 13 June 1808. In fact that sale comprised twelve properties, including the anonymously owned one that included the present lot. That it was withdrawn from that sale and appeared three years later in the first of Henry Croese's sales makes it possible that he was already the owner by 1808. This seems even more plausible as Croese seems to have had a predeliction for withdrawing his pictures, doing so with the majority of works in his 1811 sale (commented on by one of the auctioneers, Jeronimo de Vries, who wrote in a letter of 21 September 1811 that 'Nobody understands the conduct of Croese, and indeed it is incomprehensible', and again after the 1817 sale 'The greater part has not been withdrawn for very high prices. Croese constantly had others bidding against him to deceive foreigners, as I had anticipated' [both quoted from the Getty Provenance Index, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged]). The three results listed by Hofstede are all therefore fictitious and the painting remained in Croeses's collection until after 1818.
A large proportion of the Dutch pictures in the collection of Edmund Higginson were acquired on his behalf by the dealer Henry Artaria at the sale of the collection of Jean-François Boursault in Paris in 1832. The collection, which was dispersed in two sales, of 1846 and 1860, contained some distinguished masterpieces including Rubens' Holy Family with Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist, Claude's Landscape with Apollo and Mercury, Dujardin's Smithy and Willem van de Velde's Dutch Ships coming to Anchor (all acquired by Lord Hertford; now Wallace Collection, London), Philips Konincks' Extensive Landscape with a hawking Party, Jan Steen's The Broken Eggs, Van Dyck's Abbé Scaglia adoring the Virgin and Child, (all National Gallery, London) and Teniers' Chapeau Rouge (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.). Perhaps the most famous of all Higginson's pictures, however, was included as lot 77 in the 1846 sale: Constable's Haywain (also National Gallery, London).
The subject, taken from Granida, Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's pastoral play of 1605, was evidently one that appealed to Berchem at the time. He employed it in two other works: that of 1646 sold, Dorotheum, Vienna, 17 March 1970, lot 11, and that, undated but of the same period, sold in these Rooms, 17 February 1950, lot 20. Hooft's story told how Granida, the daughter of an eastern monarch and betrothed to Prince Tisiphernes, lost her way out hunting. She came upon the shepherd, Daifilo, and his mistress, Dorilea, who had just quarrelled; Daifilo fetched water in a shell for the princess to drink and, in so doing, fell in love with her (the moment depicted in the present picture, taken from Act 1, scene 3). He subsequently followed Granida to court and, after several adventures together, fled to the woods to live a pastoral life, eventually (after the yielding of Tisiphernes' claim) living proverbially happily ever after.
The provenance of this lot has in the past been slightly confused. Possibly the picture recorded in the sale of the artist and dealer Jacques de Roore (which was bought by his partner, the artist Gerard Hoet), it subsequently appeared at the anonymous sale of the collections of E.M. Engelberts and Jan Tersteeg on 13 June 1808. In fact that sale comprised twelve properties, including the anonymously owned one that included the present lot. That it was withdrawn from that sale and appeared three years later in the first of Henry Croese's sales makes it possible that he was already the owner by 1808. This seems even more plausible as Croese seems to have had a predeliction for withdrawing his pictures, doing so with the majority of works in his 1811 sale (commented on by one of the auctioneers, Jeronimo de Vries, who wrote in a letter of 21 September 1811 that 'Nobody understands the conduct of Croese, and indeed it is incomprehensible', and again after the 1817 sale 'The greater part has not been withdrawn for very high prices. Croese constantly had others bidding against him to deceive foreigners, as I had anticipated' [both quoted from the Getty Provenance Index, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged]). The three results listed by Hofstede are all therefore fictitious and the painting remained in Croeses's collection until after 1818.
A large proportion of the Dutch pictures in the collection of Edmund Higginson were acquired on his behalf by the dealer Henry Artaria at the sale of the collection of Jean-François Boursault in Paris in 1832. The collection, which was dispersed in two sales, of 1846 and 1860, contained some distinguished masterpieces including Rubens' Holy Family with Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist, Claude's Landscape with Apollo and Mercury, Dujardin's Smithy and Willem van de Velde's Dutch Ships coming to Anchor (all acquired by Lord Hertford; now Wallace Collection, London), Philips Konincks' Extensive Landscape with a hawking Party, Jan Steen's The Broken Eggs, Van Dyck's Abbé Scaglia adoring the Virgin and Child, (all National Gallery, London) and Teniers' Chapeau Rouge (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.). Perhaps the most famous of all Higginson's pictures, however, was included as lot 77 in the 1846 sale: Constable's Haywain (also National Gallery, London).