The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz
| The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz | |
|---|---|
| nl: De kunstgalerij van Jan Gildemeester Jansz | |
 |
|
| Artist | Adriaan de Lelie |
| Year | 1794–95 |
| Medium | oil paint on panel |
| Dimensions | 63.7 cm × 85.7 cm (25.1 in × 33.7 in) |
| Location | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
| Accession | SK-A-4100 |
| Website | Rijksmuseum |
The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz is a painting created by the Dutch painter Adriaan de Lelie in 1794-95. It is part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 63.7 cm wide and 85.7 cm high, executed in oil paint on panel. It depicts the art collector Jan Gildemeester Jansz (or Jan Jansz. Gildemeester) in the midst of his large collection of paintings, showing them to friends.
The painting was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1964 after being part of a French private collection.
According to the art historian C.J. De Bruyn Knops, the subject of the work - an art collector at home, showing his art collection to his friends - is unique in Northern-Netherlandish painting before 1800. In Flemish (Southern-Netherlandish) painting, this genre was common in the 17th Century; it was executed by masters like Willem van Haecht, David Teniers, Gillis van Tilborgh and Gonzales Cocques, but in the Northern Netherlands the subject didn't become popular. Probably Adriaan de Lelie had seen such works while studying in Antwerp. However, the Flemish 'konstkamers' ('art rooms') looked very different: they used to depict imaginary architecture, and probably not reality as seen by the painter. The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz, on the contrary, is a very accurate depiction of a real space.
Adriaan de Lelie follows the tradition of intimate household scenes that were painted very commonly in the Northern Netherlands since the 17th Century. Usually, the people in such genre works are clearly striking a pose, while the visitors in The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz look very natural, as if they are unaware of the presence of the painter. Probably, De Lelie was inspired by English contemporaries here: Jan Jansz. Gildemeester possessed a 1773 engraving of a spontaneous group painting by Johan Zoffany, which must have been familiar to De Lelie.
...
Wikipedia