Jacob Adriaensz BACKER (Harlingen 1607/08... - Lot 11 - Daguerre

Jacob Adriaensz BACKER (Harlingen 1607/08 - Amsterdam, 1651) Bust portrait of a man Portrait of a lady in bust, 1637 Pair of oval oak panels. The first one is inscribed on the left with AET. 56, the second dated 1637 is inscribed on the right with AET. 53. On the back, a label mentioning the name of a collector Mme Becue. 91 x 66 cm Louis XVI period carved wood frame with oval view. Provenance : according to the family tradition, collection of Jean Louis Gérard (1760-1792), shipowner in Lorient, then by descent. The sobriety and rigor that emanate from these two unpublished portraits lead us to believe that the models are members of the Mennonite Church and probably of the Waterland assembly that elected Jacob-Adriaensz Backer as its preacher. This region of West Friesland, reclaimed from the sea, was a haven for Mennonites who settled there in the sixteenth century. The Mennonite Church was named after the reformer Menno Simons (1496-1561). A priest of the Catholic Church in Friesland, he joined the Anabaptist movement in 1536, which refused to baptize young children, as they could not personally adhere to any faith. In a context of religious conflicts leading to persecution, Menno Simons remained faithful to Scripture and did not question the authority of the state, advocating non-violence and tolerance. The churches that refer to him, managed by a council of elders who choose their preachers and deacons, enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Its members are committed to mutual assistance and a simple lifestyle, without ostentatious dress or jewelry. The men wear beards and the women cover their heads. The cost of the hard-to-get deep black cloth, the hat and the pair of gloves are evidence of the affluence of our models.The pair of gloves held by the husband, a token of his fidelity to his wife, is a recurring motif in 17th century Dutch couple portraits. In the manner of his contemporary, the young Rembrandt, Jacob Backer painted "monochrome" portraits, in shades of black and gray. Here he took pleasure in modulating the tones to give volume to the buttons, the folds of the pourpoint, the coat and the moiré silk of the dress. He incised the white strawberry and collar with a sure stroke21 to give it relief and played with the material to translate the transparency of the wings of the fine batiste headdress. Born into a Mennonite family, the painter was born in Harlingen, Friesland. He was only three years old when his mother died. His father, a baker, remarried the daughter of a baker in Amsterdam, where he settled with his children. The new store is in the Mennonite quarter, on the New Dyke, not far from the port. It is close to the studio of Jan Pynas (1581/82-1631), a history painter who was probably the very first master of Jacob Adriaensz. He returned to Leeuwarden in Friesland, where he was a pupil and later assistant of the history painter and art dealer Lambert Jacobz (1593/94-1636), also a Mennonite preacher. Govaert Flinck (1615-1660), seven years Jacob Backer's junior, also from a Mennonite family (his grandfather was a preacher in Cologne), frequented this studio from 1629 to 1635. The friendship between the two artists was to be long-lasting, and although Jacob Backer never joined Rembrandt's studio, he was close to it from the time Govert Flinck joined it and assimilated the master's style to the point that some of his works painted around 1635 were attributed to him. Returning to Amsterdam in the early 1630s, Jacob Backer naturally worked for the Mennonite community and competed with Rembrandt, who was also linked to this community by his wife. The Musée Le Vergeur in Rheims holds a Portrait of a Dutch Silk Merchant Couple painted around 1638 (canvas 138 x 113 cm). The costume they wear shows that they belong to the Mennonite community. Rembrandt also painted members of the Waterland assembly. Examples include the 1632 portrait of the merchant Marten Looten (Los Angeles County Museum) and the 1641 portrait of Cornelis Claeszoon Anslo and his wife Aaltje Schouten (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). The two artists thus shared the same clientele and sometimes the same models. This is notably the case of the Mennonite preacher Johannes Wtenbogaert, of whom the Rijksmuseum holds two portraits, one by Rembrandt in 1633, the other by Jacob Adriaensz. Backer in 1638. Jacob Backer received his first major official commission in 1633: Portrait of the Regents of the Amsterdam City Orphanage (canvas, 238 x 274 cm, Amsterdam, Amsterdams Historisch Museum), one of the first group portraits featuring people depicted on the same level. We are grateful to Professor Peter van der Brink for confirming the attribution of these paintings to Jacob Backer by parmail, on digital photography, on June 27, 2022.