Jacob Toorenvliet and His NCMA Paintings a Woman Holding A

Jacob Toorenvliet and his NCMA paintings A Woman Holding a Basket of Eggs A Bearded Man Holding a Pipe Circa 1667 Oil on Copper Gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art from the NCMA Foundation Volunteers On July 9, 2014 the NCMA Foundation Volunteers purchased pendant, genre paintings by Jacob Toorenvliet, a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. The paintings, A Woman Holding a Basket of Eggs and A Bearded Man Holding a Pipe, are signed and dated in the upper left corner of each painting. The paintings were purchased through Bonhams Auction House in London by telephone bid during a live auction. According to Dennis Weller, “Jacob Toorenvliet’s A Bearded Man Holding a Pipe and A Woman Holding a Basket of Eggs would serve as important acQuisitions in that they would represent the first examples by a Leiden fijnschilder to enter the collection.” (September 10, 2014 Art AcQuisition Proposal) The paintings are included in the NCMA “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals and Their Contemporaries” exhibition, October 2014 to January 2015. They will be on view later as part of the NCMA permanent collection. Jacob Toorenvliet (1635 – 1719) Jacob Toorenvliet was one of the Leiden fijnchilders (fine painters) of the Dutch Golden Age. He specialized in genre scenes. In addition to painting rural types, such as the ones found in these two paintings, Toorenvliet also painted doctor’s visits, music lessons, and card players in elegant interiors like his teacher, Frans van Mieris the Elder. Jacob Toorenvliet was born in Leiden, studied in Leiden and painted primarily in The Netherlands and Italy. His father, Abraham Toorenvliet, was a glass painter and a respected drawing instructor. Abraham Toorenvliet’s students included Frans van Mieris the Elder and Matthijs Naiveu. Jacob Toorenvliet studied with his father, Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris the Elder. There is a connection to Rembrandt through Toorenvliet’s instructors. Rembrandt taught Gerrit Dou. Gerrit Dou taught Toorenvliet. Toorenvliet was primarily active in Italy and The Netherlands. The known cities and approximate dates follow: Vienna (1663), Rome (1669), Rome (1671), Venice (1670 – 1673), Leiden (1679), Amsterdam (1680) and Leiden (1686). In 1686 Toorenvliet returned to Leiden. He joined the Guild of St. Luke in Leiden after his return. In 1694 Toorenvliet, Carel Moor and Willem van Mieris, son of Frans van Mieris, cofounded the Leiden Drawing Academy, where the students could draw from live models. The two paintings were most likely painted while Toorenvliet was traveling outside of The Netherlands. “These paintings fit within a long history of peasant subjects in Netherlandish art. From Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s peasant wedding to Rembrandt’s rat catchers, there was a thriving market for Lee Crosby October 2014 images of peasants and rural types in the seventeenth century. For the contemporary art buying public there seems to have been a kind of romance - part earthy humor, part pastoral idyll - attached to images of the lower classes both at work and at play. They appear drinking in taverns, selling vegetables behind market stalls and, as Toorenvliet often depicts them, against a neutral background in the manner of a character study. In this case, he uses the pendant format more common to formal portraiture to depict two individuals who, despite the ragged clothes and weather worn faces, convey an air of composure.” (Christie’s 2007 Auction Catalogue Note) Note: Compare the three NCMA permanent collection paintings in the “Small Treasurers” exhibition The subjects and the trappings or lack thereof in the Toorenvliet genre paintings provide a contrast to the Matthijs van den Bergh’s “An Allegory of Vanity” (ca. 1651) acQuired by the NCMA in 2012. Matthijs van den Bergh was not considered one of the Leiden fine painters. He was a Flemish painter and former student of Rubens, who was active for a time in Leiden. Note: Leiden Fine Painters ! Leiden fijnchilders strove to create meticulously executed, often small-scale paintings. Leiden fine painters are loosely defined by their hometown of Leiden were they painted and by their fine technique. ! Characteristics of the fine painters were, in part, their attention to detail and smooth surfaces lacking in painterly brush strokes. ! The Leiden fine painters have much in common with earlier traditions of Netherlandish painting, such as those examples by Jan van Eyck. ! Contrast the textures of the Toorenvliet paintings and painterly style of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Sources Dr. Dennis P. Weller, NCMA curator of Northern European Art: Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries, exhibition catalogue (2014) Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings, Systematic Catalogue of the Collection (2009) Toorenvliet Paintings Art AcQuisition Proposal (September 10, 2014) Discussions with DW (September 2014) Public and docent lectures at the NCMA by DW (2014) Noelle Ocon, NCMA conservator, Pre-Acquisition Examination Report (August 2014) Christie’s 2007 Auction Catalogue (auction date: October 4, 2007) Bonhams 2014 Catalogue Description and Condition Report (report no. 817727) Jacob Toorenvliet. www.Wikipedia.com Prepared by Lee Crosby, member of the NCMA Foundation Volunteers Art Acquisition Committee for the Jacob Toorenvliet paintings and NCMA Docent, for the October 21, 2014 Volunteer Event .

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