Dutch Master, Northern Netherlands, ca. 1690-1700

Dutch Master
Northern Netherlands, ca. 1690-1700

Duo painting: A Portrait of a Young Man / A Marine with Boats in Choppy Water

Oil on panel
H. 27 cm. W. 33,9 cm.

PROVENANCE
Private collection H.W. Leigh-Bennett, Wickham House, Newbury, United Kingdom, ca. 1885, according to a label verso;
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, United Kingdom, 17 October 1952, lot no. 121 (as by Ludolf Bakhuizen);
Private collection

RECORD
The present work is recorded in the Hofstede de Groot Fiches Collection, RKD, The Hague, The Netherlands, ill. nr. 18030, box no. 013, card no. 1017281 (as by Ludolf Bakhuizen)

CATALOGUE NOTE
The Portrait can be attributed to (the circle) of the North Netherlandish portrait painter Pieter Nason (Amsterdam, 1612 – The Hague, ca. 1688/90) and dated to ca. 1655-1660 (on basis of the lace collar). The Seascape was formally attributed to Ludolf Bakhuizen (Emden, 1630 – Amsterdam, 1708 Amsterdam) and dated to ca. 1690-1700.

Recycling or the sustainable reuse of materials is something of all ages, as this intriguing ‘duo painting’ attests to. Around ca. 1655-1660 an anonymous Dutch Master, possibly (in the circle of) the North Netherlandish portrait painter Pieter Nason (Amsterdam, 1612 – The Hague, ca. 1688/90), paintedc a portrait of an unknown man on an oak panel. Some 30 or 40 years later, a fragment of the panel was cut out and a seascape was painted over it, reusing a part of the original sky. What prompted the reuse of the panel can only be speculated on, but the soaring prices of oak during the second half of the 17th Century many have played a part.