Galerie De Jonckheere, Paris ;

Acquis auprès de cette dernière en 2005 par les parents des actuels propriétaires ;

Collection particulière, France

In a vast interior, scholars and connoisseurs contemplate and discuss paintings, engravings, and portraits on vellum, sculptures, scientific objects and curiosities. A wide variety of pictorial genres are represented in the paintings: landscapes, still lifes, historical pieces, portraits, altarpieces, religious scenes and allegories. With this work, Adriaen van Stalbemt pays tribute to the richness of both contemporary Flemish painting and that of past centuries. On the left, hanging from the large piece of carved wooden furniture through which it was possible to access this room, is a work of the interior of a church as Pieter Neefs the Elder (with whom Adriaen van Stalbemt may have worked) would have depicted it, while above it is possible to recognise, through the Italianate landscape inspired by the Roman forum, the work of a member of the famous Bentveughels community, made up of Flemish and Dutch artists active in Rome in the early 17th century such as Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Jan Asselijn, Hendrik Frans van Lint and Willem van Nieulandt. The bluish tondo landscape is possibly by the hand of Paul Bril.

On the lower right, the painting showing game on an entablature covered in red drapery is undoubtedly by Pieter Snijders (the deer strung up in the foreground is a recurring motif in the master's work, as are the lobster and the basket garnished with bunches of white and red grapes) (1).

The work placed on a red armchair with a young man leaning over it in the foreground is inspired by The Abundance and the Four Elements painted by Hendrick van Balen in collaboration with Jan Brueghel the Elder (now in Madrid, Prado Museum, P001399, fig. 1), while the landscape placed on the floor against the foot of the chair evokes the work of Jaspar van der Laanen, Alexander Keirinx and Jan Brueghel the Younger. Among the paintings on the back wall, the Saint Jerome recalls the work of sixteenth-century Flemish painters Joos van Cleve, Pieter Coecke van Alst and Marinus van Reymerswaele, whose study of the saint depicted as a cardinal is a favourite subject, while the landscape to his left is probably by Joos de Momper. The large bacchanal in the centre is reminiscent of the work of Hendrick van Balen, while the scene depicting the Queen of Sheba before King Solomon is probably by Frans Francken II.

Finally, the portrait of the hunter holding the head of a fox is known from a painting in Karlsruhe attributed to the entourage of Karel Dujardin (no. 302) (2). Two men contemplate a curved altarpiece depicting the Virgin crowned by angels on a green background by Adriaen Isenbrant (now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 554), fig. 2), while the Holy Family surrounded by a wreath of flowers is probably a work by Frans Francken II or Jan Brueghel II in collaboration with Daniel Seghers.

Born in Antwerp and of Protestant faith, Adriaen Stalbemt took refuge in Middelburg between 1585 and 1609 due to the political unrest that engulfed the city of Antwerp in the 1580s. He returned to his hometown in 1609, probably after the proclamation of the Twelve Years' Truce, where he became master of the Guild of Saint Luke and then dean between 1618 and 1619. He participated in the intellectual life of the city through his membership in the chamber of rhetoric known as De Violeren. After a brief stay in England between 1632 and 1633, during which he produced a View of Greenwich with Charles I and Henrietta Maria (Royal Collection, Hampton Court, London) and collaborated with his compatriot Jan van Belkamp, ​​he returned to Antwerp, where he died in 1662. Well-established in the thriving Antwerp market at the beginning of the 17th century, he produced paintings for the merchant Chrysostomus van Immerseel between 1634 and 1641. Establishing a precise chronology of his production remains a challenge, since his paintings are rarely dated (3). A specialist in paintings that were intended for display in these picture cabinets, Stalbemt produced a variety of works over the course of his long career, ranging from landscapes to depictions of cabinet interiors. His religious, mythological and allegorical scenes are often set in elaborate landscapes, a genre in which he excelled. The Triumph of David over Goliath in the Prado Museum (Madrid) painted in concert with Jan Brueghel the Younger shows that he collaborated with other Antwerp artists as a figure painter (no. P001782).

In the 1610s and 1620s, Frans Francken the Younger and Jan Brueghel I were the first to paint this type of subject. As an example, one could look at the cabinet of curiosities painted by Frans Francken II from 1619, kept at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (inv. 816, fig. 3). Ursula Härting has shown that Frans Francken II produced these subjects before 1617, a milestone previously established as the year of the introduction of this genre by means of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s The Sense of Sight from 1617 (Prado Museum, Madrid, no. P001394, fig. 4). It is therefore in the wake of the production of Frans Francken II, who, with the help of a large workshop, produced numerous variants after a first prototype, that our work should be placed. Our painting is similar to another work by Stalbemt in the Prado Museum (inv. P001405, fig. 5) of which other versions are known, one having being with the De Jonckheere gallery in 2002 and the other appearing in a sale in Zurich (4). There are other interieur scenes that depict galleries of paintings of this painter.

These representations of art lovers depicted in the galleries of collectors or in spacious rooms decorated with art constitute a genre appreciated by Flemish painters of the 17th century who celebrated the practice of collecting as a sophisticated activity to be cultivated. As for us today, these paintings provided an amusing game for collectors who could pride themselves on recognizing in turn the works depicted and submitting them to the wisdom of their visitors.

1.    See for example Nature morte au chevreuil, Brussels, The Royal Museums of Belgium in Brussels, inv. 4951 or, on the same subject, the work in the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodzi Poland, inv. MS/SO/M/143.

2.    Another version came up for sale with an attribution to Jan van Bijlert (circa 1597-1671): Anonymous sale; Munich, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, 4 July 2008, n° 157.

3.    See Ursula Härting, « Adriaen van Stalbemt als Figurenmaler », Oud Holland, 1981, p. 4 who accounts for roughly ten dated paintings.

4.    Zürichsee Auktionen, 9-11 April 2008, n° 8 (see Klaus Ertz and Christa Nitze-Ertz, Adriaen van Stalbemt 1580-1662, Lingen, 2018, p. 319-321).