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Lot Essay
Details about Jan Vermeulen’s life remain obscure. He is probably synonymous with the 'Johannes van der Moolen' who joined the Haarlem painters' guild in 1651. He was certainly registered in 1652 and was fined in 1655 for not paying his membership dues. A specialist in vanitas still lifes, he was active in Haarlem, where local inventories begin to record paintings by him by 1652. Owing to the rarity of his paintings, Vermeulen’s works have often been confused with those of Haarlem contemporaries like Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne I. This seemingly haphazard arrangement of books, portfolios, musical instruments, hourglass, globe and drawing atop a blue draped table before a column, flag and spear is characteristic of the artist’s approach to the genre. He has here added a degree of theatricality by including a curtain which is pulled away to reveal the overflowing table.
The instruments in this painting allude to the fleeting, temporal strains of music – and, by extension, life itself – while the dog-eared texts and papers imply the limitations of earthly knowledge, a point that is made explicit by the inclusion of the terrestrial globe. The spear and Dutch flag, while conveying a degree of national pride, likewise suggest the precariousness of military victory. The red chalk drawing of a man in a turban at lower right is probably the work of a fellow Haarlem artist like Dirck Helmbreeker. Van der Vinne similarly placed drawings by artists like Leendert van der Cooghen in his own still lifes (see, for example, his painting in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; inv. no. OSI-342).
This notably well-preserved painting is arguably the finest of at least seven versions of this composition, all of which appear to relate to a 1656 painting by van der Vinne sold Christie’s, London, 10 December 2003, lot 34, which has traditionally been given to Vermeulen. Further variants of this composition by Vermeulen tend to substitute a furled book in place of the red chalk drawing, often with additional slight changes in detail like the inclusion of flowers, a skull or instruments with which to blow bubbles. These include a painting in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (dated 1660; inv. no. 662); one in a private collection (see E. Buijsen, The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music & Painting in the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, The Hague, 1994, pp. 312-314, no. 44) and a small, broadly handled panel sold Christie’s, Amsterdam, 1 November 2011, lot 2.
The instruments in this painting allude to the fleeting, temporal strains of music – and, by extension, life itself – while the dog-eared texts and papers imply the limitations of earthly knowledge, a point that is made explicit by the inclusion of the terrestrial globe. The spear and Dutch flag, while conveying a degree of national pride, likewise suggest the precariousness of military victory. The red chalk drawing of a man in a turban at lower right is probably the work of a fellow Haarlem artist like Dirck Helmbreeker. Van der Vinne similarly placed drawings by artists like Leendert van der Cooghen in his own still lifes (see, for example, his painting in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; inv. no. OSI-342).
This notably well-preserved painting is arguably the finest of at least seven versions of this composition, all of which appear to relate to a 1656 painting by van der Vinne sold Christie’s, London, 10 December 2003, lot 34, which has traditionally been given to Vermeulen. Further variants of this composition by Vermeulen tend to substitute a furled book in place of the red chalk drawing, often with additional slight changes in detail like the inclusion of flowers, a skull or instruments with which to blow bubbles. These include a painting in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (dated 1660; inv. no. 662); one in a private collection (see E. Buijsen, The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music & Painting in the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, The Hague, 1994, pp. 312-314, no. 44) and a small, broadly handled panel sold Christie’s, Amsterdam, 1 November 2011, lot 2.