Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 99.5 cm × width 95.3 cm
outer size: depth 9 cm (support incl. frame)
Dirck van Baburen (copy after)
The Procuress
after 1623
Technical notes
The support is a fine, plain-weave canvas that has been lined. The dark grey ground layer is visible in the cracks and abraded areas. The imprint of the original stretcher is visible, and indicates that the dimensions and shape may have been altered at the top.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 12 October 2002
Condition
Fair. Some abrasion is apparent, especially in the cracks, and the canvas has been extremely flattened by the relining. The varnish is discoloured.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1937: canvas lined
- C.H. Jenner, 1937: canvas lined
Provenance
...; sale, Gijsbert de Clercq (1850-1911), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 1 June 1897, no. 39, as Gerard van Honthorst, bought in; donated to the City of Amsterdam by Gijsbert de Clerq, 1898; on loan to the museum from the City of Amsterdam since 1898
Object number: SK-C-612
Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Dirck van Baburen (? Wijk bij Duurstede 1594/95 - Utrecht 1624)
Dirck Jaspersz van Baburen was most likely born in Wijk bij Duurstede in 1594 or 1595. His father, Jasper Petersz van Baburen, had served the Lady of Vianen as page-boy and later worked as a tax collector. Dirck van Baburen is recorded as an apprentice to Paulus Moreelse in 1611. He is thought to have travelled to Italy shortly thereafter. The first record of his presence there is a lost Martyrdom of St Sebastian in the Chiesa dei Servi in Parma, which bore the date 1615 on the reverse. In Rome, both Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani owned paintings by him. Together with David de Haen, Van Baburen received the important commission to decorate the Pietà Chapel of San Pietro in Montorio. One of the four canvases that make up this decoration, Van Baburen’s Entombment,1 is unmistakably indebted to Caravaggio’s painting of this subject executed for the Chiesa Nuova.2 Manfredi as well as Caravaggio were Van Baburen’s principal influences. He very probably returned to Utrecht in 1620 or 1621, where he seems to have shared a studio with Hendrick ter Brugghen. In addition to biblical scenes, he executed mythological and genre paintings. His 1621 Youth Playing a Small Whistle3 was probably the earliest depiction of a half-length, single-figure musician in the northern Netherlands. Van Baburen was also the first artist to depict the Dutch pastoral subject, Granida and Daifilo.4 His short life came to an end, possibly as the result of the plague, only a few years after his return to Utrecht. He was buried in the city’s Buurkerk on 12 February 1624.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
References
De Bie 1661, p. 155; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), p. 186; Slatkes 1965, pp. 1-13; Bok in Utrecht-Braunschweig 1986, pp. 173-75; Morselli in Saur VI, 1992, pp. 109-11; Bok in San Francisco etc. 1997, p. 374
Entry
In the first half of the 20th century this painting was considered to be an autograph work by Van Baburen. The original, dated 1622 and now in Boston, was only rediscovered in 1949 and first published as such by Gowing in 1951.5 While the rather harsh quality of the Rijksmuseum work rules out Van Baburen’s authorship, the craquelure reveals that it was executed in the 17th or early 18th century. Apart from the cruder handling, this copy, which does not appear to be cut down on the sides, differs from the original in that it shows less of the aged procuress.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 15.
Literature
Slatkes 1965, p. 117, no. A12, version A, with earlier literature; Van Peer 1968, p. 221; Minneapolis 1973, no. 89; Exeter etc. 1986, p. 21, no. 5a
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 35 (as Van Baburen); 1934, p. 33, no. 394 (as Van Baburen); 1976, p. 92, no. C 612; 2007, no. 15
Citation
J. Bikker, 2007, 'copy after Dirck van Baburen, The Procuress, after 1623', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5856
(accessed 25 November 2024 15:47:30).