PAULUS MOREELSE (1571 – Utrecht - 1638)

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Signed and dated, lower centre: PMoreelse/1630 (PM in ligature) Inscribed on the back of the old lining canvas: Sophie Charlotte de Saxe

On canvas, 35½ x 54⅛ ins. (90 x 137.5 cm)

Provenance: Probably commissioned by Floris, Count of Culemborg (who purchased a “Corsnacht” [Christmas Night] from Paulus Moreelse on 25 February 1631 for 360 guilders for his house ‘Hof van Culemborg’ on the Lange Vijverberg, in The Hague) Probably by descent to Princess Sophie Charlotte of Saxe- Hildburghausen (1685-1710) Art market, Berlin, 1929 Private collection, Germany

Literature: C. H. de Jonge, Paulus Moreelse: portret – en genreschilder te Utrecht 1571-1638, Assen, 1938. pp. 36, 66, 118, no. 259, fig. 161(illus) E. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638), PhD dissertation, Leiden University, 2001, p. 631-632, no. SBH219

Note: We are grateful to Dr. Eric Domela Nieuwenhuis for his assistance in researching this painting and for writing the following entry.

VP4594 In this biblical history painting by Paulus Moreelse, the infant Christ lies on a white sheet in a straw-filled crib. Mary, his mother, looks at the viewer, while shepherds, a shepherdess and Joseph are grouped around the new-born. Their emotions—joy and awe—are clear to see. A man in a red cloak on the left points to the child with his right hand. In his left he holds a closed book.

This painting—monumental by Moreelse’s standards—was first published by de Jonge in 1938. She did not mention the fact that it is signed and dated; this suggests that she never actually saw the work itself, which had been in the art trade in Berlin ten years earlier. Probably working from a photograph, she dated the painting—absolutely correctly—to 1630. She also suggested that it may be identical to a ‘Corsnacht’ or Christmas Night for which Moreelse was paid three hundred and sixty guilders in March 1631. The receipt in the archives of the Lords and Counts of Culemborg, which was signed by Moreelse, reveals that the artist was commissioned to make the painting by Floris, Count of Culemborg, and that while he was awaiting payment the work was already hanging on the chimneybreast in the countess’s ‘cabinet’ in their house, ‘Hof van Culemborg’, in Lange Vijverberg (now number 12) in The Hague. In 1629 the Count had paid Gerrit van Honthorst three hundred and fifty guilders for a mantel painting of Diana for his own bedchamber. Other receipts show that the Count also bought paintings from Roelandt Saverij and Jan van Ravesteyn.

Floris van Pallandt, Count of Culemborg (1577-1639), was one of the most eminent noblemen of his day in the Northern Netherlands. At the time of the tensions between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants, he expressed his sympathy with Van Oldenbarnevelt’s cause, much to the irritation of Prince Maurits. It was not until Prince Frederik Henrik became stadholder that he was given a greater role in the international politics of the Low Countries. In his Schilderboeck of 1604, Karel van Mander reports that Paulus Moreelse had painted life-size full-length portraits of the Count and Countess. Regrettably, nothing more is known about these undoubtedly very important pictures.

Moreelse’s Adoration of the Shepherds presents the Bible story in a manner we also find in slightly earlier paintings by other Utrecht artists like Abraham Bloemaert and Gerrit van Honthorst. One significant difference between these works and Moreelse’s version is the man on the left with the red cloak and the book. The book makes it unlikely that this figure is Joseph. The older man with his hand raised, seated beside the Virgin, should probably be identified as Joseph. The man with the book could be St Luke, the only one of the four evangelists to tell the story of the adoration of the shepherds.

The name ‘Sophie Charlotte de Saxe’ was handwritten on the back of the old lining canvas. This probably refers to Princess Sophie von Saxen-Hildburghausen (1685-1710), granddaughter of Count Floris’s heir Prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck (1620-1692) and sister of Ernst Friedrich von Saxen-Hildburghausen (1681-1724), the last Count of Culemborg.

Eric Domela Nieuwenhuis

The receipt for the painting, signed and dated by Moreelse in March 1631. 0370 The Archives of the Lords of the Lords and Counts of Culemborg, inv. no. 1892. © Gelders Archief, Arnhem. Paulus Moreelse was born in Utrecht in 1571, the son of Jan Jansz. Moreelse, a cooper from Louvain, and his wife Jannichgen Maertensdr. According to Karel van Mander in his Schilder- boeck of 1604, Paulus was apprenticed to the Delft portrait painter Michiel van Mierevelt. After completing his training, Moreelse travelled to Italy, where he remained for several years, receiving numerous portrait commissions in Rome. Back in the Netherlands, he became the leading portraitist in Utrecht. In 1596, Moreelse joined the Saddlers’ Guild, the organisation to which artists belonged until the painters and sculptors set up their own Guild of St. Luke in 1611. One of the founders of the new guild, Moreelse became its first dean, occupying this post again in 1612, 1615 and 1619. Together with Abraham Bloemaert, he was also a principal teacher at the Utrecht drawing academy, which was established around 1612. The guild’s records indicate that Moreelse enrolled no fewer than twenty-eight pupils, more than any other guild member.

A member of the Reformed Church, Moreelse was married to Antonia van Wyntershoven in 1602: of their children, two became painters and one a burgomaster. His career as a portrait painter flourished and he became a wealthy man. In 1605, he bought a large house on the Boterstraat, where he and his wife lived for the rest of their lives: eventually, he owned several other properties, including an orchard outside Utrecht. Moreelse’s many clients included the Duke of Braunschweig, the Count and Countess of Culemborg and the statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. His fame brought him commissions from all over the country and, in 1616 he painted a large militia piece for the Amsterdam Archers’ Civic Guard. In 1627, the States of Utrecht bought a “shepherd and shepherdess” from him as a gift for Amalia van Solms, the wife of Prince Frederik Hendrik.

As well as being a leading light in the Utrecht art world, Moreelse was involved in local politics. From 1618 until his death twenty years later, he had a seat on the city council and held numerous other public offices, including alderman and chief treasurer of the city. He also worked as an architect and a town planner and was an active campaigner for the foundation of the university. Moreelse died on 6 March 1638 and was buried with great pomp in the family grave in the Buurkerk.

Although a specialist in portraiture, Moreelse was also active as a history and genre painter and painted pastoral and allegorical subjects.