Allegorical Portrait of an Artist
Southgate, M. Therese
1998-10-14 00:00:00
In the annals of painting it is not unusual to find a portrait of an artist at his easel. Usually a self-portrait, it shows the artist surrounded by all the accouterments of his profession, including paints, palette, studio props, plaster casts, sometimes even a human model. Most unusual, however, is the portrait of an artist ather easel. One's first impulse is, of course, to consider the latter work also a self-portrait, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the female figure is not the artist, but a goddess or muse to the painter as in the late 17th-century Allegorical Portrait of an Artist (cover ). Once known as Portrait of an Artist in Her Studio, the work is attributed to the Dutch painter Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705). The sheer sumptuousness and fecundity of the scene, which nearly out-baroques the Baroque, alerts the viewer to the painter's time and place, and, not least, to his virtuosity. In an already Golden Age of Painting, it is as though the artist wishes to put every type of painting that has ever existed on a single canvas: mythology and religious painting, history painting, portraiture, flower painting, still life, even genre. Like a full-blown autumn garden, the overmature style, beautiful as it is, already hints at its own decay. Central to it all is a woman in blue and white wearing a gold medallion and about to be crowned with a laurel wreath. On the one hand trumpeted by an angel and on the other barked at by her little brown and white lap dog, she is, like the art of painting she symbolizes, at once heavenly and earthly; she is in fact Dutch, as the little dog, common in 17th-century Dutch interior scenes, signifies. The actual identity of the artist is not known for certain. The work was once thought to have been done by Rachel Ruysch, daughter of a professor of anatomy in Amsterdam and much acclaimed for her flower paintings. A member of the artist's guild in The Hague and sometime court-painter in Düsseldorf, she was also the mother of 10 children. She died in 1750 at the age of 86. The figure in the painting, however, bears no likeness to Ruysch and thus the work has been ruled out as either a portrait or self-portrait of the artist. The work has also been considered to have been painted by Maria van Oosterwijck, born in 1630 to a preacher from Delft, and in her day the most highly acclaimed still life painter among the many women who worked in that genre. So devoted was she to her art that she refused all offers of marriage lest family responsibilities interfere. She died, unmarried, at the age of 63. She, too, has been ruled out as the author of Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, largely on the evidence of date. The figure in the painting is thought to be too young to have been either modeled or painted by Oosterwijck. Current opinion, based on style, subject, and date, suggests Michiel van Musscher as the likeliest author. Born in Rotterdam at mid-17th century, Musscher was both painter and printmaker. Characterized as an "elegant and sophisticated artist," Musscher spent most of his career in Amsterdam, where he studied with the history painter Martinus Zaagmolen as well as with Abraham van den Tempel, Gabriel Metsu, and Adriaen van Ostade. He painted both portraits and genre, often combining the two by showing the sitter in his own environment, surrounded by personal and familiar objects—at the time an innovation in painting. He painted scholars in their studies and ladies with their maids. He was evidently a quick study and versatile as well; besides the influences of Metsu and van Ostade evident in his work, traces of Gerard ter Borch, Nicolaes Maes, Frans van Mieris, and Vermeer may also be seen. Musscher died in Amsterdam on June 20, 1705. It is possible that the identity of the painter—or of the sitter, for that matter—of Allegorical Portrait of an Artist may never be known with certainty. That is best left to the art detectives and others who pursue such puzzles. What is left to the viewer, however, is a fascinating study, one which is almost overwhelming in its detail, but one which rewards by that very fact. Like an old trunk pulled from the attic, it is stuffed with one-time treasures. Long-forgotten, the objects have become old, passé, obsolete, anachronisms in a new generation, yet as each is finally taken out, opened up, and held to the light, a new discovery, and an unexpected pleasure. Michiel van Musscher(1645-1705),Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, c1680-1685, Dutch. Oil on canvas. 114.1 × 91 cm. Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (http://www.ncartmuseum.org; gift of Armand and Victor Hammer.
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In the annals of painting it is not unusual to find a portrait of an artist at his easel. Usually a self-portrait, it shows the artist surrounded by all the accouterments of his profession, including paints, palette, studio props, plaster casts, sometimes even a human model. Most unusual, however, is the portrait of an artist ather easel. One's first impulse is, of course, to consider the latter work also a self-portrait, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the female figure is...
In the annals of painting it is not unusual to find a portrait of an artist at his easel. Usually a self-portrait, it shows the artist surrounded by all the accouterments of his profession, including paints, palette, studio props, plaster casts, sometimes even a human model. Most unusual, however, is the portrait of an artist ather easel. One's first impulse is, of course, to consider the latter work also a self-portrait, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the female figure is not the artist, but a goddess or muse to the painter as in the late 17th-century Allegorical Portrait of an Artist (cover ). Once known as Portrait of an Artist in Her Studio, the work is attributed to the Dutch painter Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705). The sheer sumptuousness and fecundity of the scene, which nearly out-baroques the Baroque, alerts the viewer to the painter's time and place, and, not least, to his virtuosity. In an already Golden Age of Painting, it is as though the artist wishes to put every type of painting that has ever existed on a single canvas: mythology and religious painting, history painting, portraiture, flower painting, still life, even genre. Like a full-blown autumn garden, the overmature style, beautiful as it is, already hints at its own decay. Central to it all is a woman in blue and white wearing a gold medallion and about to be crowned with a laurel wreath. On the one hand trumpeted by an angel and on the other barked at by her little brown and white lap dog, she is, like the art of painting she symbolizes, at once heavenly and earthly; she is in fact Dutch, as the little dog, common in 17th-century Dutch interior scenes, signifies. The actual identity of the artist is not known for certain. The work was once thought to have been done by Rachel Ruysch, daughter of a professor of anatomy in Amsterdam and much acclaimed for her flower paintings. A member of the artist's guild in The Hague and sometime court-painter in Düsseldorf, she was also the mother of 10 children. She died in 1750 at the age of 86. The figure in the painting, however, bears no likeness to Ruysch and thus the work has been ruled out as either a portrait or self-portrait of the artist. The work has also been considered to have been painted by Maria van Oosterwijck, born in 1630 to a preacher from Delft, and in her day the most highly acclaimed still life painter among the many women who worked in that genre. So devoted was she to her art that she refused all offers of marriage lest family responsibilities interfere. She died, unmarried, at the age of 63. She, too, has been ruled out as the author of Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, largely on the evidence of date. The figure in the painting is thought to be too young to have been either modeled or painted by Oosterwijck. Current opinion, based on style, subject, and date, suggests Michiel van Musscher as the likeliest author. Born in Rotterdam at mid-17th century, Musscher was both painter and printmaker. Characterized as an "elegant and sophisticated artist," Musscher spent most of his career in Amsterdam, where he studied with the history painter Martinus Zaagmolen as well as with Abraham van den Tempel, Gabriel Metsu, and Adriaen van Ostade. He painted both portraits and genre, often combining the two by showing the sitter in his own environment, surrounded by personal and familiar objects—at the time an innovation in painting. He painted scholars in their studies and ladies with their maids. He was evidently a quick study and versatile as well; besides the influences of Metsu and van Ostade evident in his work, traces of Gerard ter Borch, Nicolaes Maes, Frans van Mieris, and Vermeer may also be seen. Musscher died in Amsterdam on June 20, 1705. It is possible that the identity of the painter—or of the sitter, for that matter—of Allegorical Portrait of an Artist may never be known with certainty. That is best left to the art detectives and others who pursue such puzzles. What is left to the viewer, however, is a fascinating study, one which is almost overwhelming in its detail, but one which rewards by that very fact. Like an old trunk pulled from the attic, it is stuffed with one-time treasures. Long-forgotten, the objects have become old, passé, obsolete, anachronisms in a new generation, yet as each is finally taken out, opened up, and held to the light, a new discovery, and an unexpected pleasure. Michiel van Musscher(1645-1705),Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, c1680-1685, Dutch. Oil on canvas. 114.1 × 91 cm. Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (http://www.ncartmuseum.org; gift of Armand and Victor Hammer.
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