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Lot Essay
Long regarded as a notable work by Rembrandt, this painting was first published as the work of his pupil, Nicolaes Maes, by von Wurzbach in 1910. His attribution has been fully accepted by such scholars as Wilhelm von Bode and Werner Sumowski. Although listed by Robinson loc. cit, as 'School of Rembrandt', the attribution to Maes was reaffirmed by Leon Krempel in his 2000 monograph and catalogue raisonné of the artist's oeuvre. This important, early painting shows the artist at the outset of his career, strongly influenced by the work of his master.
While the exact dates of apprenticeships in Rembrandt's studio are not generally known, Maes is thought to have begun between 1648 and 1650. He seems to have begun his independent career by 1652 as evidenced by the fact that by December 1653 Maes had settled in Dordrecht and had made plans to marry. His painting of that year The Expulsion of Hagar is furthermore signed and dated 1653 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Although the title of The Spanish Gypsy is a traditional one, dating back at least to 1824 (the year it was exhibited at the British Institution in London), the actual subject remains uncertain. The iconography of similarly dated works suggests that this is a history painting, and certainly the costume of the central female figure recalls those in Biblical subjects, whilst the headdress of the child seems to be based on sixteenth-century dress. However, Maes had turned to genre painting by 1654 and some genre pictures of that year, such as his Young lace-maker beside a cradle (Heylshof Museum, Worms) and Young girl at a window (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), are iconographically similar to his history works, leaving the matter open for further research.
The picture is grouped with a small number of history paintings from that period, including a Vertumnus and Pomona (1653?; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), Suffer the little Children to come unto Me (1652/3; London, National Gallery) and Woman of Samaria at the Well (c. 1653; Russell collection, Amsterdam). The head of the central figure in the present work closely resembles that of Hagar in the Metropolitan painting, and it has been suggested that they both represent the same model. Professor Werner Sumowski (1984, loc. cit.) has noted that there is a drawing by Maes, Hagar and the Angel near the Well, c.1652-3 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon), in which the figure of Hagar 'in type and dress is comparable' to the central standing figure in the present picture.
By the later 1650s, Maes had begun to turn to the portraiture that would dominate his subsequent career. As he aged, his technique was to become increasingly rigid and stylised, and the 1650s are universally regarded as the zenith of his career, a view reflected by the fact that of the known history and genre paintings from this period, numbering about sixty, forty-three are in museums. With the exception of the present picture, the only major work by Maes to appear at auction for a generation is An old woman making lace in a kitchen, which was sold in 1985 (£380,000) and again in 1994 (£460,000); the painting is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Maes's palette, chiaroscuro and brushwork here owe a clear debt to Rembrandt's work of the mid-1640s to the early 1650s, among them his Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop (1645; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and his Young girl at a window (1651, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm). Maes restricted his palette to blacks, browns, whites and reds and employed techniques ranging from a meticulous 'fine painting' style in the description of wooden furniture or a wicker cradle to a grainy application of richly graduated tones in the execution of fabric and flesh. Although indebted to Rembrandt's example, his early works exhibit a precocious originality in the interpretation of the sacred text and iconographic tradition. Indeed, during this period Maes can be ranked among the most innovative Dutch genre painters, owing to his talent for pictorial invention and for devising expressive poses, gestures and physiognomies. For instance, in the New York Expulsion of Hagar, Hagar's inconsolable response to her dismissal and the characterization of Ishmael as a prematurely embittered outcast mark it as one of the most poignant renderings of a theme that was especially popular amongst Rembrandt's students.
The provenance of The Spanish Gypsy is documented from the end of the eighteenth century, and has passed through a series of highly distinguished collections. It is first recorded in the collection of Wouter Valckenier, a member of a prominent merchant family, whose relations included a Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, and Clara Valckenier, who married Casper Pellicorne, one of the subjects of Rembrandt's pair of portraits in the Wallace Collection, London). Wouter was a man of considerable means (his income was estimated in 1742 at between 8,000 and 9,000 florins), who rose to become Commisaris in 1731 and, in 1736, Schepen of the City of Amsterdam. Valckenier's collection was divided between his family's Amsterdam residence in what is now 23 Kloveniersburgwal, and their country estate, Valk-en-Heining, on the river Amstel near Loenersloot. The 1796 sale of the Valckenier collection contained several important works of art, including Rubens' Diana returning from the Chase (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland).
After passing through Josephus Brentano's collection, the painting entered that of the notable British collector Lord Charles Townshend. Townshend, whose seat was at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, was the youngest son of George, 2nd Marquess Townshend (1753-1811). For the most part, Townshend preferred to live in London and assembled there an important collection of pictures, which he kept separate from the huge assemblage of family portraits at Raynham. The collection was begun around 1811 and was continued, with regular sales and purchases, up to the year of his death in 1853. Much of his collection was bought and sold through dealers, and he is known to have used both Jeronimo de Vries, from or through whom most likely he acquired The Spanish Gypsy, and Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys, to whom he almost certainly sold it. Amongst other paintings in his collection were masterpieces such as Rembrandt's Agatha Bas (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle) and Margaretha de Geer (National Gallery, London), Schalcken's Girl with a Candle (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle), Murillo's Young man drinking (National Gallery, London) and Teniers' Le Bonnet Rouge (Wrotham Park, England).
From the Townshend collection, the picture passed through Nieuwenhuys, to the Rothschild collection, through the J.P. Morgan collection, and the collection of Baron Paul Hatvany, a Hungarian exile whose family came to England just before the Second World War.
While the exact dates of apprenticeships in Rembrandt's studio are not generally known, Maes is thought to have begun between 1648 and 1650. He seems to have begun his independent career by 1652 as evidenced by the fact that by December 1653 Maes had settled in Dordrecht and had made plans to marry. His painting of that year The Expulsion of Hagar is furthermore signed and dated 1653 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Although the title of The Spanish Gypsy is a traditional one, dating back at least to 1824 (the year it was exhibited at the British Institution in London), the actual subject remains uncertain. The iconography of similarly dated works suggests that this is a history painting, and certainly the costume of the central female figure recalls those in Biblical subjects, whilst the headdress of the child seems to be based on sixteenth-century dress. However, Maes had turned to genre painting by 1654 and some genre pictures of that year, such as his Young lace-maker beside a cradle (Heylshof Museum, Worms) and Young girl at a window (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), are iconographically similar to his history works, leaving the matter open for further research.
The picture is grouped with a small number of history paintings from that period, including a Vertumnus and Pomona (1653?; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), Suffer the little Children to come unto Me (1652/3; London, National Gallery) and Woman of Samaria at the Well (c. 1653; Russell collection, Amsterdam). The head of the central figure in the present work closely resembles that of Hagar in the Metropolitan painting, and it has been suggested that they both represent the same model. Professor Werner Sumowski (1984, loc. cit.) has noted that there is a drawing by Maes, Hagar and the Angel near the Well, c.1652-3 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon), in which the figure of Hagar 'in type and dress is comparable' to the central standing figure in the present picture.
By the later 1650s, Maes had begun to turn to the portraiture that would dominate his subsequent career. As he aged, his technique was to become increasingly rigid and stylised, and the 1650s are universally regarded as the zenith of his career, a view reflected by the fact that of the known history and genre paintings from this period, numbering about sixty, forty-three are in museums. With the exception of the present picture, the only major work by Maes to appear at auction for a generation is An old woman making lace in a kitchen, which was sold in 1985 (£380,000) and again in 1994 (£460,000); the painting is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Maes's palette, chiaroscuro and brushwork here owe a clear debt to Rembrandt's work of the mid-1640s to the early 1650s, among them his Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop (1645; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and his Young girl at a window (1651, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm). Maes restricted his palette to blacks, browns, whites and reds and employed techniques ranging from a meticulous 'fine painting' style in the description of wooden furniture or a wicker cradle to a grainy application of richly graduated tones in the execution of fabric and flesh. Although indebted to Rembrandt's example, his early works exhibit a precocious originality in the interpretation of the sacred text and iconographic tradition. Indeed, during this period Maes can be ranked among the most innovative Dutch genre painters, owing to his talent for pictorial invention and for devising expressive poses, gestures and physiognomies. For instance, in the New York Expulsion of Hagar, Hagar's inconsolable response to her dismissal and the characterization of Ishmael as a prematurely embittered outcast mark it as one of the most poignant renderings of a theme that was especially popular amongst Rembrandt's students.
The provenance of The Spanish Gypsy is documented from the end of the eighteenth century, and has passed through a series of highly distinguished collections. It is first recorded in the collection of Wouter Valckenier, a member of a prominent merchant family, whose relations included a Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, and Clara Valckenier, who married Casper Pellicorne, one of the subjects of Rembrandt's pair of portraits in the Wallace Collection, London). Wouter was a man of considerable means (his income was estimated in 1742 at between 8,000 and 9,000 florins), who rose to become Commisaris in 1731 and, in 1736, Schepen of the City of Amsterdam. Valckenier's collection was divided between his family's Amsterdam residence in what is now 23 Kloveniersburgwal, and their country estate, Valk-en-Heining, on the river Amstel near Loenersloot. The 1796 sale of the Valckenier collection contained several important works of art, including Rubens' Diana returning from the Chase (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland).
After passing through Josephus Brentano's collection, the painting entered that of the notable British collector Lord Charles Townshend. Townshend, whose seat was at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, was the youngest son of George, 2nd Marquess Townshend (1753-1811). For the most part, Townshend preferred to live in London and assembled there an important collection of pictures, which he kept separate from the huge assemblage of family portraits at Raynham. The collection was begun around 1811 and was continued, with regular sales and purchases, up to the year of his death in 1853. Much of his collection was bought and sold through dealers, and he is known to have used both Jeronimo de Vries, from or through whom most likely he acquired The Spanish Gypsy, and Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys, to whom he almost certainly sold it. Amongst other paintings in his collection were masterpieces such as Rembrandt's Agatha Bas (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle) and Margaretha de Geer (National Gallery, London), Schalcken's Girl with a Candle (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle), Murillo's Young man drinking (National Gallery, London) and Teniers' Le Bonnet Rouge (Wrotham Park, England).
From the Townshend collection, the picture passed through Nieuwenhuys, to the Rothschild collection, through the J.P. Morgan collection, and the collection of Baron Paul Hatvany, a Hungarian exile whose family came to England just before the Second World War.