GERBRAND VAN DEN EECKHOUT (Amsterdam 1621 -1674 Amsterdam)

A Hermit praying

Signed and dated (lower right): G. V. Eeckhout. fe'/ Ao 1663
Oil on canvas
39 ⅛ x 34 ½ in. (99.3 x 87 cm.)

Provenance:
Sale Dr. Simon Stinstra (Haarlem), Amsterdam, 26 March 1783, lot 45, ‘In een cluis ziet men zitten een biddende Heremiet voor een open boek waar voor een Crucifix staat, zyn handen zyn te samen gevouwen, in het verschiet ziet men een man gaan over een brug, zynde kragtig en fraybehandeld. Doek, h. 39, br. 34 duim’ [canvas, 100.2 cm x 87.3 cm.] (¦240 to Van d. Vinne); Sale L.J. Quarles van Ufford, Haarlem, 23-24 March 1874, lot 10,  ‘L'hermite en prières. Dans un paysage agreste et rocailleux, un vieillard fait ses dévotions avec ferveur; derrière lui un moine sortant de la cabane, probablement pour faire sa quête quotidienne. Très-beau tableau du maître, magnifiquement conservé. Toile. Hauteur 99, largeur 88 cent. Signé en bas, à droite: G.van denEeckhout 1663’(¦350 to H.C. Dubois) ; J. Duncan; Anon. sale, Christie’s, London, July 16, 1887, lot 96 (to Colnaghi, £99 15 Schilling); Geheim Rat (Privvy Counseler) Seeger, Berlin, by whom sold to Karl Haberstock on January 17, 1920, along with eleven other works for 85,000 Reichsmarks; Julius Jewelowski collection, Danzig; Anon. sale (Julius Jewelowski and others), Christie’s, London, 9 December 1938, lot 11, ‘Saint Anthony at his devotions,’ with a certificate from Dr. W. Bode dated October 3, 1921 (unsold 72 guineas; returned to Agnew’s, London, the agent for Julius Jewelowski); With Leger Galleries, London, 1955; With Appleby Brothers, London, 1962 (exhibited First Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Oil Paintings of the 17th and 18th Century, Appleby Brothers, London, 1962, no. 31, illustrated, ‘A Hermit Praying,’ 100 x 87.5 cm, signed and dated 1663); Private Collection, Delaware (†), and by descent, from whom acquired by Colnaghi.

Literature:
G. Isarlov, ‘Rembrandt et son entourage’, La Renaissance, 19, 1936, XI, 36, p. 49 (‘a Hermit’).
W. Sumowski, Bemerkungen zu Otto Benesch Corpus der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen I, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/, Gesellschafts und Sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe, VI, 1956/57, no. 4, p. 256 and ill. p. 268, fig. 7 (‘Saint Anthony’).
W. Sumowski, Bemerkungen zu Otto Benesch Corpus der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen, II, Bad Pyrmont, 1961, p. 17 under no. 950 (‘Saint Anthony’) and p. 23 under A23a (‘Saint Francis’).
R. Roy, Studien zu Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Phd dissertation, Vienna, 1972, p. 221, under no. 69 (‘Saint Francis’; influenced by Rembrandt's etching Bartsch 107).
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau/Pfalz, 1983, II, p. 746, no. 485, and ill. p. 858 (with incorrect dimensions; ‘Saint Francis’).
To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Prof. Volker Manuth, publication date 2006.

This evocative depiction of a hermit praying is the most detailed and ambitious of the four known treatments of the theme by van den Eeckhout, who was one of Rembrandt’s most able pupils. The other three pictures (all signed and dated) are: a smaller work from 1650(48.8 x 41.8 cm.; formerly in the Count Bennigsen collection, London; Sumowski, op. cit., p. 745, no. 491, ill. p. 854); another sold Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 12 May 2003, lot 69 (54.7 x 46.2 cm., 1655); and a painting of comparable dimensions to the Colnaghi picture (95 x 85 cm., 1668; Musées Communaux, Verviers; Sumowski, op. cit., p. 745, no. 496, ill. p. 859). 
 
The two later works reveal the more detailed style that van den Eeckhout inclined increasingly towards from the 1650s onwards. Our painting is particularly notable in this regard, with a myriad of details ranging from the basket of vegetables, thistle, twigs in the form of a cross and water flask in the foreground to the secondary figure on the right. The artist has also taken great care in describing the hermit’s grotto itself - see, for example, the interwoven branches and rope-bound walls of straw.  The restrained palette of browns reveals the enduring influence of van den Eeckhout’s master, Rembrandt, but here he bathes the grotto in warm light thereby enlivening the scene with a subtle yet highly effective range of tones. The composition is further lightened by the inclusion in the upper left of a small brightly lit landscape, complete with the charming motif of the traveller on the bridge.

It has been suggested by Sumowski (loc. cit.) that the posture of the kneeling hermit in this work may be derived from a drawing by Rembrandt depicting Jonah before the Walls of Nineveh (c. 1654-5). In this regard, Sumowski also cites a painting by another of Rembrandt’s pupils, Gerrit Dou, executed c. 1635, depicting a Hermit Kneeling in Prayer. The identification of the hermit in the Colnaghi picture – and indeed in the others mentioned above – cannot be established with absolute certainty. Although Sumowski once identified the figure as Saint Anthony (1961, loc. cit.), he has elsewhere suggested the hermit is Saint Francis (see literature). Certainly the appearance of the figure itself – bearded and wearing a brown habit tied with what appear to be three knots - and the representation and setting (praying devoutly before a cross in a grotto) would lead one to conclude that this is the most likely identification. Furthermore, if the hermit is indeed Saint Francis, then the secondary figure may be Brother Leo, who accompanied the saint during his 42-day seclusion at La Verna in 1224. However, the fact that the hermit does not have the stigmata which are perhaps Saint Francis’s most common attribute suggests that the figure should not be conclusively identified as Francis.     

Son of the goldsmith Jan Pietersz. van den Eeckhout, Gerbrand is generally assumed to have studied with Rembrandt from 1635 to 1640, as his first independently signed painting is dated 1641.  History pieces comprise the largest part of his oeuvre, although he also painted portraits, landscapes and elegant interior genre scenes.  He produced many drawings of a wide range of subjects and in a variety of media, and he also made several etchings. Van den Eeckhout’s history paintings from the 1640s often depict rare biblical episodes, and reveal not only the influence of Rembrandt (the brushwork and chiaroscuro) but also – in his use of a bright palette – that of his teacher Lastman. Although the latter’s influence began to wane in the 1650s, Rembrandt remained an important reference point, with van den Eeckhout often borrowing motifs from his master’s etching.  In the 1650s, he developed a more polished, detailed style, but not to the exclusion of the broad Rembrandtian manner, or even the occasional use of a more elegant ‘Flemish’ idiom, of the previous decade.  In the 1660s, he continued to work in a range of styles and scales, from a series of small biblical history paintings (see, for example, Christ teaching in the Temple (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), to mid-size works such as the Colnaghi picture and large-format pictures such as Jacob’s Dream (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden).