A Painter's Studio
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 49 x 60 cm h x w x d: Ram 63 x 72 x 3 cm
Inventory numberNM 340
Other titlesTitle (sv): Målarateljé Title (en): A Painter's Studio
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 99: Technical notes: The painting’s original support, now lined, is a single piece of medium-weight, loosely woven, plain weave, single-threaded fabric, with a weave count per cm of 10 horizontal and 11 vertical threads, of similar construction to that of no. 98. The tacking edges of the original fabric support have been cropped and the painting attached to a non-original stretcher at the tacking edges of the lining fabric. No cusping is visible, indicating that the painting may have been slightly cut down along all four edges. The preparatory layers consist of a thick, evenly applied, white ground, followed by a thin, semi-transparent light brown imprimatura. Paint was applied thinly in opaque and semi-transparent layers, with slight impastos in the whites, such as the collar of the young apprentice seated painting on the left and the sheets of paper on the drawing board of the apprentice drawing on the right and lying on the floor in the right foreground, as well as in the tiny highlights on the metal studs of the painter’s chair and the lock in the door on the right. The light brown imprimatura is visible in many areas of the figures and background. The paint surface has suffered extensive abrasion overall. The light brown imprimatura is clearly visible in abraded areas of the painting. A thick layer of discoloured old varnish is present. Retouching covers losses of paint and ground layers along the edges. Scattered small, discoloured retouches occur in both the figures and the background wall. Several horizontal cracks through the paint and ground layers may have resulted from the rolling of the fabric support. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1983. Provenance: Coll. Holterman-Wahrendorff; KM 1861, no. 1290; bequeathed by Martin von Wahrendorff in 1863. Exhibited: Stockholm, 1956, no. 7 (as Balthasar van den Bossche); Stockholm 1978–79; Stockholm 1980, no. 11; Stockholm 1991, no. 7; Stockholm 2010, no. 69. Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 23 (as Pieter van Bloemen); Sander IV, no. 90, p. 126 (as anonymous master); Frimmel 1886, p. 30; Göthe 1887, p. 23 (as Balthasar van den Bossche); Göthe 1893, pp. 29–30 (as Balthasar van den Bossche); Göthe 1900 (as Jan Josef Horemans); Bautier 1924, p. 136 (as Balthasar van den Bossche); NM Cat. 1958, p. 96 (as attributed to Jan Josef Horemans); NM Cat. 1990, p. 175. This painting is a companion piece to no. 98. At the centre of the work an elderly painter is depicted sitting at his easel. He is wearing a pair of spectacles as well as a hat trimmed with fur and a grey cloak. On the left an apprentice is standing mixing paint. There are a number of pupils seated at their easels or with sketchbooks in the room. An old woman, probably a servant, is entering through the door on the right. The light falls through a large studio window on the left. The oval portrait in the bottom right-hand corner was considered by Göthe (1893) to be a self portrait of the artist as a young man. One remarkable circumstance is that the Nationalmuseum’s work is listed as cat. no. 37 and fig. no. 3 in a catalogue of an exhibition of artists’ studios arranged in Nijmegen in 1964. This must, however, be a mistake as no such loan has ever been made.1 GCB 1 Nijmegen, 1964, Het Schildersatelier, 15 April−19 May 1964, cat. no. 37, fig. 3. [End]
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TechniquePainting
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