Jacob Ochtervelt was a leading painter of genre scenes and family portraits. He worked in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, both centers of international commerce, evidenced in the goods displayed in the domestic interiors he depicted. In this ensemble, Ochtervelt’s energetic brushstrokes enliven the satin and brocade gowns of the mother and daughter, breaking with the somber tone favored by Maes’s family group at left. The father wears a kimono of rich fabric, which alludes to the family’s mercantile connections, as does the Anatolian carpet behind the woman. Despite the parents’ dignified expressions, the grouping has an air of spontaneity, particularly in the figure of the young girl rushing into the room, her flowing dress creating dynamic diagonal lines that counteract the staid vertical poses of the adults. The leaping dog, a common attribute of children, symbolizes playfulness and learning, and references the informality of everyday life.
Details
- Artist Name: Jacob Ochtervelt (Dutch, 1634-1682)
- Title: Family Portrait
- Date: c. 1670-75
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 36-1/8 x 31-1/8 in. (91.8 x 79.1 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1969.12.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Charles Sedelmeyer Gallery, Vienna (sale Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, 20-21 December 1872, lot 128, bought-in).
[Ehrich Galleries, New York, 1913 to];
Mrs. Whitlaw Reid, Ophir Hall, Purchase, New York (American Art Association - Anderson Galleries, New York, 14-18 May 1935, lot 1175, to);
[Julius H. Weitzner, Inc., New York, sold 1936 to];
John H. McFadden, Jr., Philadelphia, gift 1951 to;
Philadelphia Museum of Art (sale Sotheby's, New York, 29 February 1956, lot 11).
Altona Company, Vaduz, by November, 1958, when consigned to;
[Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, returned after Summer 1959 to];
Altona Company, Vaduz.
Dr. H. Girardet, Ketting/Ruhr.
[Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, inv. no. 8320, in 1967].
[H. Schickman Gallery, New York, 1967-1969, to;]
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Catalogue of Old Pictures
- Kunsthandel P. de Boer, 1958 to 1959
Exhibition of Dutch Seventeenth Century Paintings
- New York, H. Shickman Gallery, 1967-10 to 1967-10
Old Pictures
- Kunsthandel P. de Boer, 1959 to
Antiekbeurs
- Delft, 1959 to
Antiekbeurs
- Delft, 1967 to
Art Treasures in California
- Oakland Museum, 1969-11-12 to 1969-12-31
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1970-01-08 to
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969-08 to
[on loan]
- Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum, 1969-08-18 to 1969-12-15
Encountering the Dutch Likeness: Portraiture in 17th Century Holland
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-09-02 to 1996
- Moes, F. W., Iconographia Batava, nos. 4803, 9095, note to no. 51 pp. 60, 508, 605
- Anonymous, International Studio, p. xvii
- Valentiner, W., Art in America, p. 274
- Pleitzsch, E., Pantheon, p. 370-372
- Art Quarterly, p. vi
- The Connoisseur, p. lxxxv
- Donahue, Susan S., Wadsworth Atheneum Bulletin, p. 52
- Weitzner, Julius H., Inc., A Selections of Paintings, 1936, no. 15
- E. Pleitzsch, Holländische und flämische maler des XVII jahrhunderts, 1960, p. 66
- Oakland Museum, Art Treasures in California, 1969,
- The Netherlands and the German Speaking Countries. Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries (Wadsworth Atheneum Paintings. Catalogue I), 1978, p. 169
- Kuretsky, Susan Donahue, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682) [With Catalogue Raisonné], 1979, no. 66, fig. 157 pp. 41, 81, 200
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 642 p. 322
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