Hendrick Bloemaert
Portrait of the Painter Abraham Bloemaert
Oil on panel. 68 x 54.5 cm.
Dated upper left: Aetatis 82 Anno 1645.
The whereabouts of this portrait of the painter Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651) remained unknown for many years. It was recorded in the Marburg art archive and the RKD in a photograph taken in 1930 when the painting was kept in the Schmidt art dealership in Berlin. A copperplate engraving based on this work was made during the 17th century, and it is considered the most well-known portrait of this famous Dutch painter. According to the inscription in the upper left, the work shows Bloemaert at age 82.
Researchers have attributed the work to various different artists (cf. literature), but not all of the authors who have written about it had seen the work in person. Despite its unrestored condition, the fine quality of the piece indicates that it was probably painted by the artist's son Hendrik Bloemaert in 1645.
Provenance
Rud. Schmidt art dealers, Berlin ca.1930. - Private ownership, Germany.
Literature
H. van Hall: Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars. In: Repertorium, Amsterdam 1963, nos. 172-5 (als Abraham de Vries). - Marcel Roethlisberger and Marten Jan Bok: Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: Paintings and Prints, Doornspijk 1993, vol. I, p. 53, illus. 53, no. P4; vol. II, illus. 4 (as possibly an Utrecht artist). - J. Bolten: The portraits of Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), in: Delineavit & Sculpsit no. 10 (June 1993), p. 17-17 (Typ B, no. 1), illus. 21 (as probably Hendrik Bloemaert).