Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 28: 
 
Technical notes: The original support is a single
piece of fine, tightly woven, plain weave, single-threaded
fabric, which has been lined and remounted on what is
probably the original stretcher. The original tacking
edges have been cropped on all sides. Pronounced cusp-
ing is present on the left side only. The painting would
seem to have been cut down very slightly on the right, as
suggested by details such as the missing elbow of the
statue of Cupid at the lower right.
Paint is applied thinly, in opaque layers, with minimal
brush marking, over a thin, warm reddish brown ground
that remains visible along the contours of figures and
objects, in the slight “gap” between figures and background
and in some of the stone busts and plaster casts at
the lower right. The background was filled in after the
figures were painted. Slight impasto is used in the sky
and white clouds at the upper left, in the flesh tones, the
sculptor’s white shirt and in the tiny white or yellow
lights on details of clothing, such as the polished brass
buttons of the visitor at centre left, on the oriental carpet
draped across the table on the right and on the sculpted
busts and casts in the right foreground. The painting is
generally executed in a finely detailed manner.
A thick layer of discoloured old varnish is present.
The paint surface is moderately abraded overall, with
scattered small retouches, visible with the aid of ultraviolet
fluorescence, mainly concentrated in the area of the
figures at centre and in the table with busts at the right.
There is a fine overall craquelure, with a tendency
towards flaking in an area at the upper left.

Provenance: Bengt Rapp’s Art Gallery 1957; purchased
in 1959.
Exhibited: Stockholm 1956, no. 5; Stockholm 2010,
no. 45.

Bibliography: Supplement 1972 to NM Cat. 1958, p.
1; NM Cat. 1990, p. 41.

As Zaremba Filipzak has commented, there was a
fashion for historical paintings in Antwerp around
1700 prompted by a nostalgia for the golden age of
Antwerp painting.1 Several of the studio paintings by
Gerard Thomas and Balthasar van den Bossche recreate
the 17th century by inserting historical pieces as if
they had just been made. Even costume details such as
millstone collars appear. In the Nationalmuseum
painting the studio is the usual architectural structure
of the 17th century with columns, urns and a looped up
draping. A man dressed in a Polish costume accompanied
by a black servant has just entered the studio. He
is received by the artist, who demonstrates a model
bust of a young prince dressed in a periwig and
cuirasses of steel. Several sculptures are scattered
around the studio, some of them antique, like the bust
of Seneca on a shelf. A celestial globe appear next to
the classical sculptures. As it often does, the globe represents
the universal harmony which the visual arts
shared together with music and astronomy. Two
apprentices are present to the left in the foreground. A
dog is resting on the floor.
Similar scenes by Balthasar van den Bossche are to
be found in the National Gallery Warsaw and the Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlung, Schleissheim.2 The
RKD has registered a copy of the Nationalmuseum
painting sold in London in 1936.3 In this painting the
dog on the floor is missing. A Sculptor’s Studio dated
1707 sold at Christie’s in 1966 shows the same bust of
a young prince on a pedestal.4 The Nationalmuseum
painting can also be compared with A Polish Cavalier
Visiting a Sculptor’s Studio, sold at Christie’s in 1995.5
GCB
1 Filipzak 1987, pp. 9, 177.
2 Inv. no. 72604 and inv. no. 2219.
3 Robinson and Fischer, 23 July 1936, no. 30.
4 Filipzak 1987, fig. 91.
5 68.3 x 58.8 cm, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1995.
[End]

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