.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The theme of Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man was a favorite among Netherlandish artists in the seventeenth century, not in the least for the philosopher’s abandonment of worldly goods and adoption of an ascetic life. Sir Peter Paul Rubens was probably the first northerner to treat the theme in a lost painting of circa 1618-20.
With theatricality bordering on the High Baroque, Jordaens embarked on the subject in one of the most ambitious and imposing canvases of his mature period, painting his Diogenes Seeking a Man in 1642 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). According to the antique historiographer Diogenes Lakrtius (VI:46), the celebrated Cynic philosopher Diogenes (c. 412-323 BC) went to the market of Athens with his lamp in broad daylight, and when questioned by bystanders replied that he was searching for an honest man among the people. The poet Joost van den Vondel included the story among four episodes from the life of the Greek eccentric in his widely acclaimed publication Den Gulden Winckel der Konstlievende Nederlanders of 1613.
While ultimately deriving from the Dresden picture, the present sketch was likely painted by Jordaens as a preparatory work for a variation on the theme, and served as the model for a studio version sold at Sothbey’s, London, 28 October 2010, lot 40. Brecht Vanoppen, to whom we are grateful, dates this autograph sketch to circa 1650 (on the basis of a photograph), noting its slight differences to the studio variant, including the hand of the elderly woman to the left of Diogenes, who here raises only one finger instead of two.
With theatricality bordering on the High Baroque, Jordaens embarked on the subject in one of the most ambitious and imposing canvases of his mature period, painting his Diogenes Seeking a Man in 1642 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). According to the antique historiographer Diogenes Lakrtius (VI:46), the celebrated Cynic philosopher Diogenes (c. 412-323 BC) went to the market of Athens with his lamp in broad daylight, and when questioned by bystanders replied that he was searching for an honest man among the people. The poet Joost van den Vondel included the story among four episodes from the life of the Greek eccentric in his widely acclaimed publication Den Gulden Winckel der Konstlievende Nederlanders of 1613.
While ultimately deriving from the Dresden picture, the present sketch was likely painted by Jordaens as a preparatory work for a variation on the theme, and served as the model for a studio version sold at Sothbey’s, London, 28 October 2010, lot 40. Brecht Vanoppen, to whom we are grateful, dates this autograph sketch to circa 1650 (on the basis of a photograph), noting its slight differences to the studio variant, including the hand of the elderly woman to the left of Diogenes, who here raises only one finger instead of two.