While the paintings were on loan to
The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the renowned Hals
scholar Seymour Slive observed that they are ‘outstanding,
superlative works… in a near miraculous state of preservation.’
Their exceptional condition means that Hals’ fluid brushwork and
subtly toned palette can be clearly appreciated.
Eric Albada Jelgersma (1939-2018) was just one of several illustrious
owners of the Hals pictures, which are said to be the finest
pair of portraits by the artist remaining in private hands.
During the 19th century they belonged to the family of Count
de Thiènnes, who lived in
Castle Rumbeke, one of the oldest renaissance castles
in Belgium.
In the 20th century they passed through the hands of Canadian
railroad magnate and pioneering Impressionist collector William
Cornelius Van Horne and the American diplomat J. William
Middendorf II, before Jelgersma acquired them in 1996 from Robert Noortman, the Dutch art dealer and decade-long director of TEFAF art
fair.
At that time Albada Jelgersma, a businessman from the south of Holland who
had amassed a fortune in the supermarket wholesale industry,
was well on his way to establishing his reputation as a connoisseur
of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish masterpieces, acquiring
works that covered each genre of Golden Age painting.
Mr Albada Jelgersma’s collection also includes one
of the largest landscapes
Jan Brueghel the Elder ever painted on copper (above),
and important genre paintings by
Gerard Ter Borch,
Michiel van Musscher and Dirck Hals, as well as Merry Company, a scene
of three young revellers by
Judith Leyster (below). This particularly rare work by
the greatest female painter of the Dutch Golden Age was painted
in 1629 when the artist was just 20 years old, and demonstrates
her precocious talent.
Other notable highlights include Anthony van Dyck’s monumental painting of Venus and Adonis (below),
which is a rare disguised double-portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke
of Buckingham, and his wife Katherine Manners, as the characters from Classical mythology. Painted in 1620,
most probably to celebrate the couple's marriage, then rediscovered
in 1990, the canvas is one of only three works datable to
Van Dyck’s first trip to England — and the only one still
in a private collection.
In addition, the evening sale features a selection of still life paintings,
including a small-scale masterpiece by
Ambrosuis Bosschaert the Elder and a monumental Frans Snyders canvas (below).
Frans Snyders (1579-1657), Larder. Oil
on canvas. 66⅝ x 93⅛ in (169.2 x 236.5 cm). Estimate:
£1,000,000-1,500,000. Offered in The Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection
Old Masters Evening Sale on 6
While the paintings were on loan to
The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the renowned Hals
scholar Seymour Slive observed that they are ‘outstanding,
superlative works… in a near miraculous state of preservation.’
Their exceptional condition means that Hals’ fluid brushwork and
subtly toned palette can be clearly appreciated.
Eric Albada Jelgersma (1939-2018) was just one of several illustrious
owners of the Hals pictures, which are said to be the finest
pair of portraits by the artist remaining in private hands.
During the 19th century they belonged to the family of Count
de Thiènnes, who lived in
Castle Rumbeke, one of the oldest renaissance castles
in Belgium.
In the 20th century they passed through the hands of Canadian railroad magnate and pioneering Impressionist collector William Cornelius Van Horne and the American diplomat J. William Middendorf II, before Jelgersma acquired them in 1996 from Robert Noortman, the Dutch art dealer and decade-long director of TEFAF art fair.
At that time Albada Jelgersma, a businessman from the south of Holland who had amassed a fortune in the supermarket wholesale industry, was well on his way to establishing his reputation as a connoisseur of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish masterpieces, acquiring works that covered each genre of Golden Age painting.
In the 20th century they passed through the hands of Canadian railroad magnate and pioneering Impressionist collector William Cornelius Van Horne and the American diplomat J. William Middendorf II, before Jelgersma acquired them in 1996 from Robert Noortman, the Dutch art dealer and decade-long director of TEFAF art fair.
At that time Albada Jelgersma, a businessman from the south of Holland who had amassed a fortune in the supermarket wholesale industry, was well on his way to establishing his reputation as a connoisseur of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish masterpieces, acquiring works that covered each genre of Golden Age painting.
Mr Albada Jelgersma’s collection also includes one
of the largest landscapes
Jan Brueghel the Elder ever painted on copper (above),
and important genre paintings by
Gerard Ter Borch,
Michiel van Musscher and Dirck Hals, as well as Merry Company, a scene
of three young revellers by
Judith Leyster (below). This particularly rare work by
the greatest female painter of the Dutch Golden Age was painted
in 1629 when the artist was just 20 years old, and demonstrates
her precocious talent.
Other notable highlights include Anthony van Dyck’s monumental painting of Venus and Adonis (below),
which is a rare disguised double-portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke
of Buckingham, and his wife Katherine Manners, as the characters from Classical mythology. Painted in 1620,
most probably to celebrate the couple's marriage, then rediscovered
in 1990, the canvas is one of only three works datable to
Van Dyck’s first trip to England — and the only one still
in a private collection.
In addition, the evening sale features a selection of still life paintings,
including a small-scale masterpiece by
Ambrosuis Bosschaert the Elder and a monumental Frans Snyders canvas (below).
Portrait
of Princess Mary (1631–1660), daughter of King Charles I of England,
full-length, in a pink dress decorated with silver embroidery and
ribbons by Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1641, will be offered from a Distinguished Private Collection in Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on 6 December, during Christie’s Classic Week
(estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000). Commissioned to celebrate the crucial
alliance between the British crown and the House of Orange, this
intimate ad vivum (from life) portrait of Princess Mary, the
finest portrait of the type, is remarkable for its royal provenance, the
superb quality of its draughtsmanship and its exceptional condition. It
is one of the most important European Royal Portraits to come to
auction for a generation.
The painting will go on public view for the first time, ahead of the auction, at Christie’s Shanghai on 19 until 21 September, later touring to New York where it will be on public view from 25 to 30 October and to Hong Kong between 23 and 26 November, ahead of the pre-sale public exhibition in London from 1 to 6 December.
The painting will go on public view for the first time, ahead of the auction, at Christie’s Shanghai on 19 until 21 September, later touring to New York where it will be on public view from 25 to 30 October and to Hong Kong between 23 and 26 November, ahead of the pre-sale public exhibition in London from 1 to 6 December.
John Stainton, Deputy Chairman, Old Master Paintings, Christie’s EMERI:
“This beautifully-preserved full-length portrait of Princess Mary, eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, and future mother of King William III of England, was one of the last commissions executed by van Dyck, in the summer of 1641, only months before the artist’s premature death at the age of forty-two. It bears many of the hallmarks of his remarkable genius – in the subtle rendering of the sitter’s physiognomy, the masterful depiction of the shimmering drapery, the brilliance of the palette, and the assured draughtsmanship and deft handling of the paint. A work of the finest quality, it represents the culmination of all that van Dyck had learnt from his master, Peter Paul Rubens, and from his Venetian predecessors, notably Titian. By developing his own distinctive style of portraiture, characterised by a calm authority and supreme elegance, van Dyck both revolutionised portraiture in Europe and left a legacy for future generations of artists from Gainsborough and Lawrence, to Sargent and Freud.”
ROYAL PROVENANCE:
Identified by Sir Oliver Millar as one of two portraits commissioned from van Dyck for the court at The Hague, this painting would originally have formed part of the prestigious collection of the Princes of Orange, Stadtholders of the United Provenances of the Netherlands. It would likely have been displayed in one of their principal palaces, possibly at Binnenhof Palace in The Hague, where Princess Mary lived with her husband William, alongside works by many of the principal Dutch and Flemish painters of the seventeenth century.
Identified by Sir Oliver Millar as one of two portraits commissioned from van Dyck for the court at The Hague, this painting would originally have formed part of the prestigious collection of the Princes of Orange, Stadtholders of the United Provenances of the Netherlands. It would likely have been displayed in one of their principal palaces, possibly at Binnenhof Palace in The Hague, where Princess Mary lived with her husband William, alongside works by many of the principal Dutch and Flemish painters of the seventeenth century.
VAN DYCK IN ENGLAND:
In July 1632, van Dyck was appointed ‘Principal Painter in Ordinary to their Majesties’ by King Charles I of England. A passionate collector and patron, the King had long hoped to attract a painter of such exceptional status and renown to his service, and found in van Dyck an artist not only capable of fulfilling his desire for magnificent portraits and paintings, but also one who shared his tastes, especially for Venetian pictures. The style, refinement and brilliance of van Dyck’s portraits was unprecedented in England; the artist instilled in his sitters a new sense of vitality and movement and his bravura technique allowed him to enliven the entire surface of his works with light, assured dashes of paint, as exemplified in the present portrait.
In July 1632, van Dyck was appointed ‘Principal Painter in Ordinary to their Majesties’ by King Charles I of England. A passionate collector and patron, the King had long hoped to attract a painter of such exceptional status and renown to his service, and found in van Dyck an artist not only capable of fulfilling his desire for magnificent portraits and paintings, but also one who shared his tastes, especially for Venetian pictures. The style, refinement and brilliance of van Dyck’s portraits was unprecedented in England; the artist instilled in his sitters a new sense of vitality and movement and his bravura technique allowed him to enliven the entire surface of his works with light, assured dashes of paint, as exemplified in the present portrait.
PRINCESS MARY AS SITTER:
Van Dyck first painted the sitter in the weeks immediately following his arrival in London in 1632, when the young Princess Royal was shown with her parents, King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, and elder brother, the future King Charles II. The monumental group portrait, known as ‘The Greate Peece’, dominated the King’s Long Gallery in the Palace of Whitehall (The Royal Collection). The earliest single portraits of Princess Mary, which show her full-length in a blue dress, with her hands linked together across her stomach – a pose that echoes van Dyck’s earlier portraits of her mother – were painted in or before 1637, and are now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Hampton Court. Four years later, she sat again to van Dyck with her fifteen-year-old husband, Prince William of Orange, for the double portrait now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as well as for the present work.
Van Dyck first painted the sitter in the weeks immediately following his arrival in London in 1632, when the young Princess Royal was shown with her parents, King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, and elder brother, the future King Charles II. The monumental group portrait, known as ‘The Greate Peece’, dominated the King’s Long Gallery in the Palace of Whitehall (The Royal Collection). The earliest single portraits of Princess Mary, which show her full-length in a blue dress, with her hands linked together across her stomach – a pose that echoes van Dyck’s earlier portraits of her mother – were painted in or before 1637, and are now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Hampton Court. Four years later, she sat again to van Dyck with her fifteen-year-old husband, Prince William of Orange, for the double portrait now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as well as for the present work.
JEWELS AND ATTIRE:
In both the present work and in the Rijksmuseum double portrait, Mary is shown wearing her wedding ring and the large diamond brooch given to her by her husband on 3 May 1641, the day after their marriage. Her spectacular coral gown, decorated with silver thread trim along its border, is thought to be similar to that worn for her wedding, rather than the cloth of silver-gold she wears in the Rijksmuseum picture. The apparent weight of the fabric, falling in broad, heavy folds, along with the bright highlights along the creases, suggest the fabric may have been cloth of silver. Shimmering highlights, applied in swift, cross-hatched strokes, were used as a form of shorthand by artists, mimicking the lustre of metallic threads as the textile caught the light. In accordance with the fashion of the period, her gown is open down the front, revealing a stiffened stomacher across the chest and a matching skirt beneath. The ribbons, which would at one time have been functional, lacing the skirt and stomacher to the bodice, were applied purely as adornment. One ribbon, however has been pinned or stitched flat to disguise the seam between the bodice and skirt. Details such as the Princess’s brooch, the string of pearls and ribbons on her shimmering dress are rendered with remarkable precision and delicacy, characteristics that defined the artist’s finest late works.
In both the present work and in the Rijksmuseum double portrait, Mary is shown wearing her wedding ring and the large diamond brooch given to her by her husband on 3 May 1641, the day after their marriage. Her spectacular coral gown, decorated with silver thread trim along its border, is thought to be similar to that worn for her wedding, rather than the cloth of silver-gold she wears in the Rijksmuseum picture. The apparent weight of the fabric, falling in broad, heavy folds, along with the bright highlights along the creases, suggest the fabric may have been cloth of silver. Shimmering highlights, applied in swift, cross-hatched strokes, were used as a form of shorthand by artists, mimicking the lustre of metallic threads as the textile caught the light. In accordance with the fashion of the period, her gown is open down the front, revealing a stiffened stomacher across the chest and a matching skirt beneath. The ribbons, which would at one time have been functional, lacing the skirt and stomacher to the bodice, were applied purely as adornment. One ribbon, however has been pinned or stitched flat to disguise the seam between the bodice and skirt. Details such as the Princess’s brooch, the string of pearls and ribbons on her shimmering dress are rendered with remarkable precision and delicacy, characteristics that defined the artist’s finest late works.