The annual winter exhibition of Old Master Paintings at Jack Kilgore & Co., January 19 to February 13, coincides with the Old Master sales in New York. The main focus of the show will be on Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth Century paintings.
This area of the Golden Age of Dutch painting will feature, from the famous Netherlandish master Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), “Adam.” The pendant to this newly rediscovered panel painting, “Eve,” is in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg. Until “Adam” recently resurfaced, no information on its whereabouts or existence was documented. “Eve” was in a French collection in Dijon until the Strasbourg museum purchased the painting in 1936. Most likely the two paintings were separated long before “Adam” was included in the first retrospective devoted to Goltzius at the Toledo Museum of Art, which ended on January 5.
The provenance of Samuel van Hoogstraten’s (1627-1678) “Salmacis and Hermaphroditus” can be traced back close to the time of its execution when the painting belonged to the artists’ neighbor Johan de Jongh in Dordrecht. Although he resided most of his life in Dordrecht, Hoogstraten migrated to Amsterdam for several years, when he entered Rembrandt’s studio. Of the many pupils of Rembrandt, Hoogstraten is of particular interest due to his long treatise on painting: “Inleyding to de hooge schoole der schilderkonst, anders de zichtbaere werelt,” in which he gives a first-hand account of Rembrandt and his studio.
From the beginning of the Eighteenth Century “Still life of Game with a Hare, Partridge and Hunting Gear” by Jan Weenix (1642-1719). Around this time, the hunting still life had become increasingly popular for stately wall decorations. By 1702, the year before executing our “Still life of Game,” Weenix had achieved sufficient acclaim to become court painter to the Elector Palatine John William of Dusseldorf, for whom he painted 12 large hunting scenes designed as wall panels for the elector’s lodge, Schloss Bensberg, near Cologne. When Goethe saw these impressive works in situ in 1774, he claimed that Weenix had surpassed nature in visually rendering every tactile value of his subject.
In addition to the Dutch and Flemish paintings in the show, an altarpiece by Luca Giordanoa (1634-1705) will be shown. His “Virgin and Child with Souls in Purgatory” can be dated to circa 1665, the year of Giordano’s first documented visit to Venice from his native Naples. The Madonna depicted is actually known as Our lady of Mount Carmel, indicated by the Brown Scapular held by one of the putti surrounding her. In the Veneto region in the Seventeenth Century, the Carmelite order was active and established most impressive churches, such as the Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth.
The chronology of the exhibition continues with a French painting of “Belisarius Begging Alms” by Nicolas Rene Jollain (1732-1804), first show at the Salon in 1767 in Paris. Although Jollain is now less well known than some of his contemporaries, his art was part of the mid-Eighteenth Century Baroque revival in French religious painting. Jollain was adept at maintaining the smooth forms of the rococo style while incorporating fashionable neoclassical subject matter or references. Jollain’s “Belisarius Begging Alms” was the inspiration of Jacques-Louis David rendition of 1781, one of his masterpieces now in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Lille.
The gallery is at 154 East 71st Street. Hours are Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm. For information, 212-650-1149.
