Beskrivning: Nattliga genrescener är ofta förknippade med moraliskt tvivelaktiga handlingar och det måttlösa. Mångtydiga bilder, som den gamle mannen med ett vinglas, är svårare att tolka. Motstridiga föreställningar om åldrandet var inte ovanliga under 1600-talet. Är ljuset här en symbol för ålderdomens visdom och dygd eller snarare lömska handlingar dolda av nattens mörker?

Res. Katalogtext: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 58: 

Technical notes: The original support, a single
piece of coarse, loosely woven, plain weave fabric, with a
weave count of 10 horizontal and 12 vertical threads per
cm, has been lined and attached to a non-original
stretcher. The original tacking edges are present, but
cusping is absent on all sides.

Paint is applied thickly, mainly in opaque layers, over a
thick, opaque, medium-brown ground, which helps
define the dark areas of the composition. The ground
fills, but does not hide the texture of the woven support.
There is extensive use of strong impasto and vigorous
brushwork in the whites, such the sash tied around the
old man’s waist and in the highlights on his forehead,
cheeks, nose and beard, on his fur collar, left arm and
hand, on the candle and the rim of the glass held in his
right hand. In the beard and fur collar, reddish brown
paint was scumbled on to the opaque brown ground.
Remnants of a deep red translucent glaze are preserved
in the wine glass.

A thick, discoloured layer of old varnish is present.
Retouching covers extensive losses of ground and paint
layers along the edges of the painting. Extensive coarse
retouching is evident in areas of the background, especially
at the top and lower left, and scattered small
retouches cover abrasion and small losses in the old
man’s face, left hand and sleeve and fur collar. The surface
has been somewhat flattened by the lining. There is
a pronounced overall craquelure, with areas of “cupping”
throughout. The painting underwent conservation treatment
in 1935, 1983, 1986 and 1995.

Exhibited: NM Lövstabruk, 1995; Stockholm 2010, no.
55.
Bibliography: Sander IV, p. 155, no. 1048 (as Gerard
Honthorst); NMCat. 1867, p. 33 (as Gerard van Honthorst);
Göthe 1887, p. 111–112 (as Gerard van Honthorst);
Göthe 1893, p. 139 (as Gerard van Honthorst);
NM Cat. 1958, pp. 94–95 (as Gerard van Honthorst);
Nicolson 1966, p. 253 ff (as Adam de Coster) ; Nicolson
1979, p. 44; Nicolson 1989, vol. I, pp. 100–101 (as Adam
de Coster, uncertain attribution); NM Cat. 1990, p. 90
(as attributed to Adam de Coster).

The use of camouflaged candlelight often links Adam
de Coster’s work to similar paintings made in the
1620s by the Utrecht painter Gerard van Honthorst.
It is therefore easy to understand why this painting
was attributed in earlier Nationalmuseum catalogues
to this master. In 1966, however, Nicolson ascribed
the work to Adam De Coster. The attribution seems
convincing when comparing the painting with Portrait
of a Singer by Candlelight in Dublin, which had earlier
been attributed to Honthorst (Fig. 1).1 Both figures
have the same heavy eyelids and the same unruly hair.
In the1989 edition of Nicolson’s catalogue both works
are listed as uncertain attributions. The Nationalmuseum
painting can also be compared to a similar motif
sold at Sotheby’s 1996 as Adam De Coster.2 All these
works have the same archaic and somewhat coarse
character.

GCB
1 National Gallery, Dublin, 123 x 93. See Nicolson 1979 p. 44 and Nicolson
1989, p. 100.
2 17 January 1996, lot 145. [End]

Nighttime genre scenes are often associated with morally dubious activities, with voluptuousness and excess. The difficulty of any symbolic reading arises with such ambiguous images as this old man holding a wine glass. Conflicting attitudes toward the elderly were not uncommon in the 17th century. Is the candlelight a symbol of the enlightenment of virtuous old age, or of sinister pursuits obscured by the cloak of night?

Gubbe med brinnande ljus och glas