[Cassel Gallery
A WINTER SCENE
(1646)
The succeeding year, 1649, is one of the two that has no dated picture, and were it not for the "Portrait of Marshal Turenne," at Panshanger, which must have been painted that year—if indeed it be his, which has recently been doubted—we should have to regard it as utterly barren; for M. Jules Porgès' "Old Woman" is only supposititiously of that date. We may be sure, however, that some of the large number of unsigned pictures attributed to about that time were undoubtedly painted in the course of it. Of these there are several in public galleries: "The Slaughter-house," at Glasgow [No. 707], from the date on which the two last figures are missing; the portrait of "His Brother," in the Emperor Frederick Museum at Berlin; the "Bust of an Old Man," at Strasburg; the "Portrait of Himself," at Leipzig; "The Ruin," at Cassel [No. 220]; the picture, called "The Metamorphosis of Narcissus," at Amsterdam [No. 1251]; and five pictures in the Hermitage: "Abraham entertaining the Angels" [No. 791], "The Sons of Jacob bringing him Joseph's Coat" [No. 793], "The Disgrace of Haman" [No. 795], "Pallas" [No. 809], and "Hannah teaching Samuel to read" [No. 822], none of which is dated, though the second, third, and fifth are signed. There are also in private hands, two portraits in those of M. Jules Porgès, a portrait in M. Bonnat's, and others. Dated pictures of the year 1650 are rare. There is a "Portrait of Himself," in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, and one, "His Brother," at the Hague [No. 560]; and three subject-pictures, "Tobit and his Wife," the Duke of Abercorn's "Deposition," and "The Young Woman in Bed," in the National Gallery, Edinburgh.
The same number of pictures is dated 1651. Four are portraits: one of himself, belonging to Herr Mendelssohn of Berlin; the "Old Man," in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire; "The Man with a Baton," in the Louvre [No. 2551], and "The Girl with a Broom," in the Hermitage [No. 286]. The subject-picture "Christ and Mary Magdalene in the Garden," called "Noli me tangere," is at Brunswick [No. 235].
The next two years are very deficient in dated pictures. Two only, "The Old Man," seated in a chair, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, and the "Portrait of Bruyningh," at Cassel [No. 221], are dated 1652; but the picture of "Hendrickje Stoffels," in the Louvre [No. 2547], and a "Head of Christ," belonging to M. Rodolphe Kann of Paris, are of about that year. 1653 has only one, "The Portrait of a Man," wrongly entitled Van der Hooft, belonging to the Earl of Brownlow, for "The Entombment," at Dresden [No. 1566], is but a copy of the picture at Munich [No. 330], touched up by Rembrandt. Here again we may safely accord to the seemingly empty year some of the undated pictures of the period, which include six portraits, one of which, "An Old Man," is in the Hermitage [No. 818]. "An Old Woman," in the same collection [No. 804], may also belong to the year, for it is very similar to the two pictures, dated the following year [Nos. 805 and 806]. The only other undated pictures which call for special mention are two landscapes: the "Mill," in the collection of the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the one at Glasgow [No. 705], which is known as "Tobias and the Angel" from the figures in the foreground.
[Louvre, Paris
CHRIST AT EMMAUS
(1648)
The dated pictures of 1654 are nine portraits and two subjects, "Bathsheba," at the Louvre [No. 2549], being one, and "The Woman bathing," at the National Gallery [No. 54], the other. Of the portraits, one of himself, doubted, however, by Dr Bode, is at Munich, [No. 333], "An Old Man with a Beard," at Dresden [No. 1567], "An Old Woman," at Brussels [No. 397A], "An Old Jew," "An Old Man," and "An Old Woman," besides the two old women being in the Hermitage [Nos. 810, 823, and 825], while "The Young Servant" is at Stockholm [No. 584]. Most, if not all of these, however, were studies painted because his still restless energy would not allow him to be idle. The same may be said of the portraits dated 1655, only two of which we can even suppose to have been commissions—the companion pictures of "An Old Man," and "An Old Woman," at Stockholm [Nos. 581 and 582]; the two others bearing dates being studies of his son "Titus," one in the collection of M. Rodolphe Kann, the other in that of the Earl of Crawford. The dated picture at Glasgow [No. 706], like the undated "Man in Armour," at Cassel, is rather a study of armour than a picture. The portrait at the Louvre [No. 2546], a copy of one at Cassel [No. 225], and the rest of the undated heads, mostly of small size, painted about that time, are simply sketches or studies, the only subjects being "The Slaughter-house," in the Louvre [No. 2548], and two pictures of "Joseph accused by Potiphar's Wife," differing only in details, one at Berlin [No. 828E], and one in the Hermitage [No. 794], for "The Flight into Egypt," at Buda-Pesth, though belonging to the period, is undated.
1656, the year of his actual bankruptcy, was an unusually prolific one, including "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Johannes Deyman," now in the Ryksmuseum at Amsterdam, of which, unfortunately, the fire of 1723 has left only a fragment, [No. 1250]; the "Portrait of Arnold Tholinx," belonging to Madame André-Jacquemart of Paris; the "Portrait of an Architect," at Cassel [No. 224], the signature and date of which, however, M. Michel declares to be forged; and the companion pictures of "A Young Man," and "A Young Woman," at Copenhagen [Nos. 273 and 274], the second of which is alone dated. There are also two undated "Portraits of Himself," painted about that time—one belonging to Lord Iveagh, the other to Lady de Rothschild; and an "Old Man," at Dresden [No. 1568]. In addition to these portraits there are two large subject-pictures—"The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard," at Frankfort [No. 181], and "Jacob blessing Joseph's Sons," at Cassel [No. 227], besides "The Preaching of St John the Baptist," at Berlin [No. 828K]. There are, moreover, two pictures belonging to about that date—"The Denial of St Peter," in the Hermitage [No. 799], and "Pilate washing his Hands," in the collection of M. Sedelmeyer at Paris.