JACOB VAN LOO (Sluis 1614 – Paris 1670)
Venus and Adonis
Signed on the rock in the lower left JV
Oil on canvas
31 ½ x 27 inches (80 x 69 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Pieter Locquet, Amsterdam
Estate sale of Pieter Locquet, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, September 22, 1783, lot 207 (as by Jacob van Loo) where purchased by
Coclers
Georges Aubry, Paris
Estate of Georges Aubry, Alphonse Bellier, Paris, February 13, 1939, lot 116, illustrated (as by Adriaen van der Werff)
Anonymous sale, Maîtres Ader – Picard – Tajan, Paris, April 24, 1972, lot 163, illustrated (as by Adriaen van der Werff) where acquired by
Private Collection, Paris and thus by descent until 2012
Their sale, Sotheby’s, Paris, June 21, 2012, lot 22, illustrated (as by Jacob van Loo)
LITERATURE
Connaissance des Arts, no. 242, April 1972, p. 36 (as by Adriaen van der Werff)
E. Bénézit, “Adriaen van der Werf” in Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, volume 10, Library Gründ, Paris, 1976 (as by Adriaen van der Werff)
E.J. Sluijter, De “heydensche fabulen” in de Noordnederlandse Schilderkunst, circa 1590-1600. Een proeve van beschrijving en interpretative van schilderijen met verhalende onderwerpen uit de klassieke mythologie, La Haye, 1986, pp. 121-127, 240-241, & 455, no. 178, illustrated (as by J. van Loo)
E.J. Sluijter, De “heydensche fabulen” in de Schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw. Schilderijen metverhalende onderwerpen uit de klassieke mythologie in de noordelijke Nederlanden, Leyde, 2000, p. 75-77, 141 & 253 (notes 74 and 76), no. 244, illustrated
David Mandrella, Jacob van Loo (1614 – 1670), Paris, 2011, pp. 186 – 187, no. P. 115, illustrated (as by Jacob van Loo, datable to the late 1650’s, and as location unknown)
Jacob van Loo was born in Sluis, near Bruges, in 1614 to an unknown painter, Jan, from whom he probably received his first instruction as an artist.[1] As early as August 1635, Van Loo’s name is mentioned in an Amsterdam notarial document in connection with the delivery, under contract with the dealer Marten Cretzer, of ten paintings. It is not certain but quite possible that Jacob van Loo was then already active in Amsterdam. The earliest known works by his hand datable before or around 1640, are genre paintings in the manner of Pieter Codde. It is plausible, therefore, that the paintings of 1635 were works of this sort rather than history paintings.
In August 1642 Van Loo was betrothed in Amsterdam to Ann Langele (died Amsterdam 1656), sister of The Hague painter Marinus Lengele (died Paris 1668) and niece of Jan Mijents (1614-1670), a prominent portraitist from The Hague. From this marriage seven children were born. The youngest of the four sons, Abraham (who called himself Abraham Louis or Louis; 1652-1712), and Johannes (1654 – after 1694) were also painters. Abraham was the progenitor of the French family of painters Vanloo.
Toward the middle of the century, Jacob van Loo, whose activities extended to portraiture, genre, and history paintings, had made a name for himself both in Amsterdam and elsewhere. In 1649 Constantijn Huygens, the erudite secretary to the stadtholder Frederick Hendrik, had placed his name on a list of artists under consideration to decorate the new Huis ten Bosch palace near The Hague. His local fame is most clearly demonstrated by his mention, amidst many renowned fellow Amsterdamers like Rembrandt, Flinck, Bol, and Van der Helst, in a poem written by Jan Vos in 1654.
Meanwhile, in January 1652, at the same time as Bol, Flinck, and De Helt Stockade, Jacob van Loo purchased Amsterdam citizenship. This fact is doubtless connected with commissions, which were then expected for the decoration of the new Amsterdam town hall. Although Van Loo never did receive commissions from either the stadtholder’s court or the Amsterdam municipal administration, he nevertheless did receive other important commissions. For example, in 1657 he painted Allegory on the Distribution of Food to the Poor for the Oudezijds Huiszittenhuis, one of the workhouses in Amsterdam. It was one of three works ordered at the same time; the other two were executed by Jan van Bronchorst and Cornelis Holsteyn. His relationship with the Haarlem artist Holsteyn, who was dead by 1658, perhaps gained Van Loo the important commission to paint portraits of the Regents (1658) and Regentesses (1659) of the Aalmoezeniers Armen Werkhuis (Almoners Workhouse for the Poor) in Haarlem. The commission was all the more significant for having been won over local Haarlem painters who were active at that time, such as Hals, Verspronck, and Jan de Braij.
A fight with fatal consequences compelled Jacob van Loo to abandon Amsterdam in the autumn of 1660. Shortly thereafter he established himself in Paris, where in 1663 he was admitted to the Académie de peinture. He died there on November 26, 1670.
The present work was auctioned in 1939 and 1972 under the name of Adriaen van der Werff, but now is unquestionably accepted as an important work by Jacob van Loo. It may be favorably compared to Diana and her Nymphs now in Copenhagen, Statens Kunst Museum. In his catalogue raisoné on the artist, David Mandrella places the work toward the end of the 1650s. It is at this moment that Van Loo painted smaller works with more attention to detail, rather than larger mythological compositions.
The scene of the present work depicts the moment when the goddess Venus bids farewell to her lover Adonis, who is about to die in a terrible hunting accident. The story, which has attracted not only artists but poets, including Shakespeare, tells that Adonis was the offspring of the incestuous union of King Cinyras of Paphos, in Cyprus, with his daughter Myrrha. His beauty was beyond words. Venus developed a helpless passion for him as a result of a chance graze she received from Cupid’s arrow. One day while out hunting Adonis was slain by a wild boar, an accident Venus had always dreaded. Hearing his dying groans as she flew overhead in her chariot, she came down to his aid but was too late to save him. (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X)
[1] Biographical information taken from: Gods, Saints & Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age Of Rembrandt, Exhibition Catalogue, 1980, p. 204.