JAN BAPTIST WEENIX (Amsterdam 1621 – Huis ter Mey 1659)
Travelers at Rest in the Environs of Rome
oil on canvas
31 x 26 inches (81 x 66 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, August 21, 1799, lot 148, (Lugt 5966), sold to
La Bouchere
Possibly La Bouchere sale, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, September 29, 1802, lot 59, (Lugt 6498), sold to
Wessel Rijers
Anonymous sale, Charles Farebrother, London, February 4, 1804, lot 46, (Lugt 6734)
Anonymous sale, Great Britain
Rainer & Elisabeth Schöpke, Frauenfeld, Switzerland, by 1976
Rainer & Elisabeth Schöpke sale, Sotheby‘s, London, December 11, 1985, lot 187
Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc. New York, 2000
Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York, 2000 from whom acquired by
Private Collection, New Jersey, 2000 until the present time
EXHIBITED
Chur, Switzerland, Bünder Kunstmuseum and Thun, Thunerhof, Flamische und Niederländische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts : Sammlung R. & E. Schöpke, September 5, 1976 – November 14, 1977, unpaginated
LITERATURE
Anke A. Van Wagenberg – Ter Hoeven, Jan Baptist Weenix, The Paintings, Waanders Uitgevers, Zwolle, 2018, pp. 95-96, no. 14, illustrated
Jan Baptist Weenix was bom in Amsterdam in 1621, the son of the architect Johannes Weenix and Grietgen Heeremans. His sister Lijsbeth married the painter Barent Micker (1615 - 1687, whose brother Jan Micker (1598/99 - 1664) was Weenix's first teacher. He subsequently studied with the Utrecht painter Abraham Bloemaert and completed his training in the Amsterdam studio of Claes Moeyaert. In 1639, Weenix married Josina de Hondecoeter, daughter of the landscape painter Gillis Claesz de Hondecoeter (1604 – 1653). On October 30,1642, he drafted his will as he was planning to travel to Italy to "experiment with his art." He lived in Italy from 1643 to 1647. In Rome, Weenix joined the Netherlandish artists' society, the Bentvueghels. About 1645 the artist probably entered the service of Cardinal Camillo Pamphili. Weenix was back in Amsterdam by June 1647, however by 1649 he had settled in Utrecht where, together with Jan Both, he was elected an officer of the local painters' guild. In 1657, Weenix moved to Huis ter Mey, where he died in 1659. Weenix had two sons, one of whom, Jan, became a well-known still-life painter.[1]
Along with Claes Berchem and Jan Both, Weenix was a leader of the second generation of seventeenth century Dutch painters. He painted and drew history subjects, views of Mediterranean seaports, landscapes, genre scenes, still-lifes with dead game and some portraits, although these are quite rare. But the artist is perhaps best summarized by Anke A. Van Wagenberg – Ter Hoeven in her recent catalogue raisonné on the artist: “Of the Italianate painters Jan Baptist Weenix was the liveliest, most painterly, and the best colorist, with a consistently defined clarity”.[2] Upon his return and throughout his career Weenix was intent on recreating the grandeur of the Italian landscape, of which this painting is a perfect example. Shown in crystal clear light under a vivid blue sky, travelers rest among ancient ruins, while a horse grazes nearby with an extensive landscape beyond. The beauty of the now sunken Corinthian columns and monumentality of the cornice and frieze vividly suggest the lost glory of the Roman Empire. Three of the figures have their backs to the viewer, a feature Weenix regularly employed to add movement to the composition[3], with only the seated drinker’s one eye directly engaging onlookers.