Monogrammist I.S.
Tronie of an Elderly Woman
Oil on panel. 39.5 x 32 cm.
Inscribed 'No 19' and 'No 39' (white paint, verso)
This tronie of an old woman is a product of the Monogrammist I.S., one of the most enigmatic personalities in 17th century Netherlandish art. He has been assigned a small œuvre of just under a dozen works, which are as finely painted as they are diverse. Theodor von Frimmel was the first to attempt to outline this artist's œuvre (op. cit., passim). The works were assigned on the basis of several paintings monogrammed “IS” and sporadically dated between 1632 and 1658. The list of collections housing this artist's works is long and impressive, testifying to this master's importance: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick; Nationalmuseet, Stockholm; Getty Museum, Malibu; Rijksmuseum Catharijnecovent, Utrecht; National Gallery, Dublin; Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich; Collection of the Princes of Salm-Salm, Anholt.
The artist's works include portraits, tronies, and genre scenes. They depict older men and women, a kitchen interior with a seated old woman or a scholar in his study. The colour palette tends to be kept to monochromatic shades of green and brown, the figures in their interiors appear strangely calm and sunken in reverie. The colour palette and the tronie subject indicate a certain familiarity with the works of Rembrandt and Jan Lievens, and a probable education in Holland. The attire of the artist's protagonists is unusual. It displays a different kind of exoticism than that used in the tronies of the Rembrandt circle, pointing more towards the Slavic or Baltic region, indicating that the artist may have moved to Eastern Europe following his stay in the Netherlands (Sumowski, op.cit., passim).
Tronies began as mere head or character studies, but were established as a successful independent genre by the circle of Rembrandt and Jan Lievens in Leiden. This head of an old woman in a fur collar is painted with delicate brushstrokes in finely nuanced tones. The technique displays the “peculiar merging of linear and painterly qualities” that Sumowski observed as characteristic of the monogrammist's style (op. cit. p. 2549).
Dr. David de Witt of the Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam has confirmed this painting to be an authentic work by the Monogrammist I.S. upon examination of the original.
Provenance
Anton van Welie (1866–1956), The Hague. – His estate sale, S. J. Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 7.4.1936, lot 22, (attributed to Gerrit Dou, with expertise by Prof. Dr. Willem Vogelsang; an example of the auction catalogue of Hans Schneider is annotated: ‘eerder meester IS (more likely Master IS), and kept in the RKD in The Hague). - Anton van Welie, until 1953 (as Dou). – Purchased from J. van Duijvendijk, 1953 (attributed to the Monogrammist I.S.), The Hague, 1959. – Private collection, Netherlands.
Literature
B. J. Renckens: unpublished thesis on the Monogrammist I.S. with catalogue raisonné, typescript, c. 1950s/60s, preserved in Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague (archive B.J. Renckens), unpaginated.
Exhibitions
L.J. Bol, ‘Goede Onbekenden. Nederlandse schilderijen uit de 16e en 17e eeuw zonder signatuur of met een (nog) niet verklaard monogram gemerkt’, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, 1959, pp. 6-7, cat. no. 10 (as Monogrammist I.S.), repr.