Portrait of the Artist's Parents, Salomon de Bray and Anna Westerbaen
Jan de Bray·1664
Historical Context
Jan de Bray's Portrait of the Artist's Parents, Salomon de Bray and Anna Westerbaen, dated 1664, is a moving double portrait of the painter's father, himself a prominent Haarlem painter and architect, and his mother. The de Bray family was one of the most important artistic dynasties in seventeenth-century Haarlem, with Salomon training several of his sons as painters. This intimate family portrait was painted just six years before the plague of 1664 devastated the family.
Technical Analysis
The oil on panel shows Jan de Bray's accomplished portraiture style, combining warm flesh tones with careful attention to his parents' distinguished but aging features. The tender characterization and dignified composition reflect both his artistic skill and his personal affection for the sitters.
Provenance
The artist [c. 1627-1697]; possibly bequeathed to Gaeff Fabritius, former burgomaster of Haarlem.[1] John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7-8 May 1868, no. 11); Reiset, for Princess Mathilde [1820-1904, née Mathilde L.M. Bonaparte], Paris;[2] (her estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 17-21 May 1904, 1st day, no. 21). Agénor, duc de Gramont [1857-1925], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22 May 1925, no. 7); Joseph Fuller Feder [d. 1944], New York;[3] by inheritance to his daughter, Mrs. George Monroe Moffett [d. 1956, née Odette Feder, formerly the Countess du Bourg de Bozas and Mrs. J. Ronald McCrindle], New York;[4] by inheritance to her son, Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008], New York; gift 2001 to NGA. [1] The artist drew up his first will on 17 June 1664, leaving his entire estate to his younger brother, Dirck, and bequeathing "...to the Honourable Gaeff Fabritius, erstwhile burgomaster of the city of Haarlem, a portrait of his testator and a portrait of his late father and mother, standing and viewed from the side, providing that on the death of the said Gaeff Fabritius both portraits shall pass to the city of Haarlem." ("Ten tweede aen den E. Heere Gaeff Fabritius oudt burgenmeester deser voorn. Stadt Haerlem sijns Testateuren conterfeystel metter pleth, mitsgaders het conterfeytsel van sijn voorn. overleden vader ende moeder staende in een stuck ende van ter seyden geschildert mits dat beyde de voorn. conterfeytsels naert overlijden van den voorn. Gaeff Fabritius sullen moeten commen ende vervallen aende voorn. Stadt Haerlem.") The artist eventually drew up six wills, the last in 1683, and after incurring debts he could not pay, applied for a dispossession order and was declared bankrupt in 1689. (See Jeroen Giltaij in _Dutch Classicism in Seventeenth-Century Painting_, ed. Albert Blankert [exh. cat., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Städtelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt 1999-2000], Rotterdam, 1999: 276-279.) [2] An annotated copy of the sales catalogue in the NGA Library indicates that the painting was acquired by Reiset for Princess Mathilde. It is not known where or when Robinson, who was curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acquired the painting. [3] Annotated copy of sales catalogue, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Feder also acquired Largillierre's _Portrait of a Young Man with His Tutor_ (NGA 1961.9.26) at this sale. A photograph in the NGA curatorial files of the Feder apartment in The Sherry-Netherland on Fifth Avenue in New York shows the painting hanging in the living room. [4] According to the entry in _Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New York Private Collections_, exh. cat., National Academy of Design, New York, 1988: no. 6, which refers to an annotated catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.
