Estimate

60.000 - 80.000

Session 1

13 December 2021

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on canvas

82x99 cm

Category

Paintings

JUAN VAN DER HAMEN Y LEON

Originating from an ancestral lineage of Flemish nobility and military grandees at the service of the Habsburg dynasty, Juan Van der Hamen y Leon, born on April 8th, 1596, was the offspring of a wealthy aristocratic Madrid family. Following his father and his grandfather he entered the Archers Guard, the elite corps responsible, since Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) reign, for the highly honoured mission of protecting the monarch. In 1615 he marries Eugenia Herrera, born amidst a family of painters and sculptures and, four years later, receives his first commission from the Spanish court. As a painter he was favoured by the aristocracy, having throughout his life a very active role in Madrid’s cultural life. Various literary figures his contemporaries, amongst which Félix Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Góngora (1561-1627) and Juan Pérez de Montalbán (1602-1638) mentioned him in their writings, praising his capacity for recreating reality. Widely recognized for a particular talent in painting still lives, Van der Hamen was respected by his peers for his versatility, his artistic production embracing a variety of types such as portraits, allegories, landscapes, floral compositions and large format canvas destined to churches and religious institutions. From the latter group stand out the important works produced for the Royal Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid as well as those dating from 1625 that can be seen at the Convent of La Encarnación in the same city. The fame achieved as a portrait painter granted Van der Hamen various commissions from King Filipe IV (1605-1665) and from contemporary scholars and writers such as Félix Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), Luis de Góngora (1561-1627), José de Valdivieso (1565-1638), Juan Pérez de Montalbán (1602-1638), Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1581-1639) and Francisco de Rioja (1583-1659). From amongst his portrait production stands out that of a person of small stature painted ca. 1623, in a powerful naturalistic style that anticipates, by some years, the work produced by Diego Velásquez (1599-1660). Sometime later he portrays cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679) who, pleased with the result, acquires a further three of his works. His still life paintings not overly valued until later in his career, it was in fact his work as portrait painter that granted him his first artistic recognition, turning him into the subject of deep philosophical discussion. Van der Hamen was also pioneer in the field of flower painting, a theme he embraced as an answer to the production of Flemish artists such as Jan Brueghel, the Elder (1568-1625). Although his artistic training had no Flemish connection, his earliest works share some aspects with Flemish genre paintings. Although they do not reach the same levels of technical precision, translucence of composition or the use of light characteristic of Northern European schools, they do expose models that are characterized by larger volumes that reinforce the internal structure and the tactile qualities of the objects depicted. The subjects arise symmetrically arranged with focused and strongly contrasting light that create deep, highly effective shadows. The selection of the decorative elements that compose his sets follow the wishes of his wealthy patrons and include bronze mounted rock crystal vases, ceramics and Chinese porcelain, sometimes silverware and even Venetian glass vessels. Venetian glass was highly prized and immediately recognized by 17th century Madrid elites and, by including it in his paintings, Van der Hamen created an imaginary symbolic link with his sitters and patrons. Equally conspicuous were depictions of refined sweetmeats such as sugar sprinkled puddings, candied fruits and delicate biscuits. Still lives, sometimes classified as a minor genre, flourished throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, being dominated in Spain by the sombre and austere bodegón. Considered the greatest 17th century still life Spanish painter Van der Hamen production however went well beyond being merely symbolic or narrative. Following from the success of his floral and still life works Van der Hamen opened a studio in Madrid at Calle de los Tintoreros, a fact that might explain the irregular quality of extant works, including some that, bearing his signature, seem likely to have been produced or co-produced by students and studio assistants. A major example of this production is undoubtedly the work “Offering to Flora”, dated 1627 and today kept at the Prado Museum in Madrid. A truly visual poem which, by adopting a Flemish style composition reveals interesting light subtleties on the costumes’ textile surfaces. Equally from the Prado Museum stands out a pair of still life paintings, both depicting flower vases, accompanied by a dog in one of the works, and by a puppy in the other. Both paintings with a provenance from the Palace of Jean de Croy, Count of Solre who, together with Diego Mexia, Marquess of Leganés, was one of the artist’s most important patrons. Juan Van der Hamen died March 28th, 1631, aged 35 and today his works can be appreciated in major international museums such as the above-mentioned Prado Museum, as well as the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando also in Madrid, the Granada Museum of Fine Arts and the Basel Museum of Fine Arts. He is also represented in important private collections such as the National Bank of Spain, the Várez-Fisa and the António Hipola collections. A large selection of his major works was shown in the 2006 exhibition “Juan van der Hamen y León and the Court of Madrid” organized by the Royal Palace of Madrid and the Meadows Museum of Dallas.
Description of the Work On a stone windowsill a quince and a few raspberries. Centrally placed a large gilt bronze mounted Venetian glass vase with apples and pears, flanked symmetrically by two small footed salvers one teeming with raspberries and the other with blackberries. Topping this scene, in each upper corner of the painting, a pair of dead birds hanging from their beaks and ready to be plucked. As is typical of Van der Hamen’s production we are confronted with a light and dark composition that reinforces the impression that the objects escape their stillness and attempt to abandon the canvas to invade the viewer’s space. The same large bronze mounted Venetian glass vase was often depicted in the artists’ work, certainly chosen as an expensive luxurious object that conveyed the opulence of the contemporary elites’ daily life. This elegant fruit bowl can be seen in paintings belonging to the Arango and the Bank of Spain collections and perhaps it was owned by the artist. They are works generally dated 1622-1623, at time when Van der Hamen favours symmetrical, orderly and frontal compositions of subtle lighting. His style will later assume denser, asymmetrical and more complex characteristics. The painting we are presenting for sale at auction is complemented by the introduction of dead birds, elements pioneered by the painter Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560-1627) and adopted by other contemporary artists to complete the upper corners of their compositions. Such is also the case with another still life from the Várez-Fisa collection, and also evident in a work from the Abelló collection albeit with differences in the placing of the fruits. There are various known versions of this specific composition, but with variants to the vase’s contents, of which the earliest is dated to 1621. Known as the Gran Frutero and depicting plates of pastries and candied fruits it now belongs to the Bank of Spain collection. Another similar painting is kept at Basel’s Fine Art Museum.

TIAGO FRANCO RODRIGUES

LITERATURE: Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, cat. exp., Londres, National Gallery Publications, 1995. pp. 44-63. Jordan, William B., Juan van der Hamen, Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2002. Jordan, William B., Juan van der Hamen y León, Nueva York, New York University Press, 1967. Cherry, Peter, Arte y naturaleza. El bodegón español en el siglo de oro, Madrid, Fundación de Apoyo a la Historia del Arte Hispánico, 1999. R.T. Martín, La naturaleza muerta en la pintura española, Barcelona, 1971, p. 56. E. Valdivieso, 'Un bodegón inédito de Juan van der Hamen', Archivo Español de Arte, XLVIII, 1975, pp. 402-403, fig. 7. B.S. Myers, Encyclopedia of World Art: Supplement: World art in our time, XVI, New York, 1983, p. 186. E. Harris, 'Exhibition Reviews: London, National Gallery, Spanish still life', Burlington Magazine, CXXXVII, 1995, p. 331. W.B. Jordan, An Eye on Nature: Spanish still-life paintings from Sanchez Cotán to Goya, London, 1997, pp. 60-63. V.G. Powell, C. Ressort, et al., Musée du Louvre. Département des Peintures. Catalogue: écoles espagnole et portugaise, Paris, 2002, p. L. Ramón-Laca and F. Scheffler, 'Juan van der Hamen y el Gusto Foráneo por las Flores', in M.C. Bravo, ed., El arte foráneo en España: presencia e influencia, Madrid, 2005, p. 361, note 4.