Item | Waddesdon Manor

artist or maker

previously attributed to Frans van Mieris I (Dutch, b.1635, d.1681)
figure possibly after Eglon van der Neer (Dutch, b.c 1634, d.1703)

Date

1670s

dated stylistically.

Place of production

Rotterdam, Holland, Netherlands

Medium

oil on panel

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

2155

Small oil painting on panel of a man in three-quarter length holding a gun, resting against a balustrade in a landscape. The man is dressed in fanciful old-fashioned costume. He wears a large floppy beret trimmed with a white feather plume and ribbons; a silk jacket, waistcoat and neck-scarf. He wears a ring on his right hand and holds the gun across his body. He leans on a low balustrade to the left, with a box on top. A taller wall supporting a plaque and surmounted by a column appears behind. Trees, grass and hills appear to the right. In the middle distance there are three horse riders, dogs and a stag.

A hunter poses nonchalantly against a pillar taking time out from his sporting pursuits. The painting is currently attributed to Adriaen van der Werff, although it could be by his teacher Eglon Hendrik van der Neer. The work is probably a portrait and may have originally had a pendant showing a woman in fanciful dress.

Commentary

The painting could be an early portrait by van der Werff which shows his debt to the style and composition of his teacher Eglon Hendrik van der Neer (1634-1703). Some scholars believe the work may have been executed largely by der Neer who allowed van der Werff to add his signature to some of his paintings. The attention to the drapery is however characteristic of van der Werff's later work. It was a much admired quality in his lifetime despite later critics dismissing his work as lifeless.

The care used in rendering the fine lines of the man's face suggests the work is a portrait. The sitter's whimsical beret and rich clothes add an imaginary aspect to the depiction. It is perhaps an early example of van der Werff's use of surrounding drapery, architecture and sculpture to comment on the refinement and learning of his subjects. If it is a portrait it may have had a female pendant, possibly in the dress of a shepherdess as in two paintings by Ary de Vois (c. 1631-1680) now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, and Dresden's Gemäldegalerie.

Phillippa Plock, 2011

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

235 x 197 (current size); 209 x 197 (original size)

Signature & date

not signed or dated

History

Provenance

Acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 176, no. 75
J Q Van Regteren Altena, Review of The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Ellis Waterhouse, Paintings., Oud Holland, 85, 1970, 59-61; p. 60
Barbara Gaehtgens; Adriaen van der Werff 1659-1722; Munich; Deutscher Kunstverlag Munchen; 1987; p. 381, no. 114; as 'Bildnis eines Jägers (Portrait of a Hunter)'

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Genres

Portraiture/Genres

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