Name: WALLERANT VAILLANT (LILLE 1623-1677 AMSTERDAM)
Brand: Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a gilt-thread black doublet and lace collar
Price: 8000.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

WALLERANT VAILLANT (LILLE 1623-1677 AMSTERDAM)
Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a gilt-thread black doublet and lace collar
oil on canvas, unframed
29¹⁄₄ x 24³⁄₈ in. (74.3 x 61.8 cm.)

(Probably) Eberhard Heinrich Löhr (1725-1798), Leipzig, and by descent to,
Löhrschen Gemäldesammlung zu Leipzig; Herrn Raths-Proclamator Förster, Lohr'schen Platze, Leipzig, 30 May 1859 (=1st day), lot 171, as 'Diego Velazquez', 62 Rtl to the following,
Nicholas Frederick Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg (1827-1900), and by descent to his son,
Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg (1853-1931), by whom sold,
Galerie-Oldenburg; Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, 25 June 1924, lot 163 (1,500 florins).
with Daniel Katz, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Inventory of the Collection of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, 1867, 1871, 1875, 1881, 1890, 1902.
W. Bode, Die grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie zu Oldenburg, Vienna, 1888, p. 76.
G. Ebe, Der deutsche Cicerone: Führer durch die Kunstschätze der Länder deutscher Zunge, Leipzig, 1901, IV, p. 379.
A. Bredius and F. Schmidt-Degener, Die grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie im Augusteum zu Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 1906, p. 27, illustrated.
K. Schäfer, Führer durch die grossherzogliche Gemälde-Galerie im Augusteum zu Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 1912, p. 32, illustrated.
F. Hellwag, ‘Aus den Großherzoglichen Kunstsammlungen in Oldenburg’, Sonderdruck der Leipziger Illustrierten Zeitung, no. 3689, 12 March 1914.
G. Pauli, Price-list, 20 February 1919, unpublished manuscript, Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Oldenburg.
G.-L. 'Aus der Sammlerwelt und vom Kunsthandel', Der Cicerone, XVI, 1924, p. 581.
Der Cicerone Versteigerungsergebnisse 1924, 1924, XVI, p. 171, no. 163.
H. Vollmer, ed., Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig, 1940, XXXIV, p. 42.
S. Dohe et al., Die Gemäldegalerie Oldenburg. Eine europäische Altmeistersammlung, Oldenburg and Petersberg, 2017, p. 256, no. 148, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

While the identity of the present sitter remains unknown, his dress was historically associated with Dutch admiralty figures, like Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Egbert Meeuwsz Cortenaer (1605-65), Vice Admiral, Admiralty of the Maas, Rotterdam, shown with the prominent display of a similar baldric. Frederik Schmidt-Degener also noted its similitude to French fashions of the 1660s, such as that in Vaillant’s pastel portrait of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (Albertina, Vienna), dated to 1660, suggesting that the sitter may have been a member of the country’s nobility. Indeed, it was at this time that Vaillant worked for the French court, when he was commissioned by Anne d’Autriche (1601-1666) in 1660 to create a series of pastels of the French royal circle, before returning to Amsterdam in 1665.

The painting entered the Gran Ducal Collection of Oldenburg in 1859, when it was acquired at auction in Leipzig from the Löhr Collection as by Diego Velázquez. The catalogue, however, already hinted at the authorship of the Flemish Vaillant. This attribution was accepted in the first inventory record of the Gran Ducal Collection in 1867 and was later reaffirmed by the leading art historians of the time: Wilhem Bode in 1888, Abraham Bredius and Frederik Schmidt-Degener in 1906, who commented on the attractive quality of the painting (op. cit.).

In the 2017 publication Die Gemäldegalerie Oldenburg: Eine europäische Altmeistersammlung (op. cit.), the present portrait was discussed as a lost work that once enriched the noble collection. Following the end of the German Empire and the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, the Gran Duchy of Oldenburg was dissolved. In 1919, Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II (1852-1931) went into exile in the Netherlands and took the most valuable third of the art collection with him for a planned sale in the flourishing Dutch art market. The dispersal of the collection gained international attention, with a sizeable number of artworks secured for the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam by the Rembrandt Syndicaat prior to the auctions held at Frederik Muller & Cie in Amsterdam. The present work was among the lots in the exclusive sale of the Galerie Oldenburg in June 1924, which would remain unseen until its reappearance in private hands nearly 100 years later.