Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 101*

Jacob Adriaensz. Backer
(Harlingen 1608-1651 Amsterdam)
Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a black tunic with a lace collar

Amended
5 December 2012, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £103,250 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Old Master Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Jacob Adriaensz. Backer (Harlingen 1608-1651 Amsterdam)

Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a black tunic with a lace collar
signed with monogram 'AB' (upper left)
oil on canvas
97 x 74.5cm (38 3/16 x 29 5/16in).

Footnotes

LITERATURE:
E. de Heer and P. van den Brink, Jacob de Backer (1608/9-1651) (Amsterdam, 2008), ill. p. 171 (as whereabouts unknown)

Peter van den Brink dates this portrait, whose whereabouts was hitherto unknown, to circa 1647 and states that it compares well with other male portraits of Backer from the last phase of his life, such as the Portrait of Abraham de Visscher and the Portrait of Machtelt Bas, both of which are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and date from 1651, and more famously his portrait of the Governors of the Niewwezijds Huiszittenhuis at Amsterdam, also in the Rijksmusem (op. cit., p. 171). These portraits are similarly characterised by an objective rendering of the subject, concentrating on the accurate representation of his sitters.

Jacob Backer, who had been a fellow pupil of Govaert Flinck in the studio of the history painter, Lambert Jacobsz., in Friesland, returned, with Flinck, to his native Amsterdam in 1633, where he remained for the rest of his life. Soon after his arrival in the city he received his first important commission for a group portrait of the Governors of the Civic Orphanage of Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum), one of the most famous Amsterdam group portraits. While his fame has since been eclipsed by that of Rembrandt, he was much praised in his own lifetime and afterwards.

Saleroom notices

Please note that the cataloguing for the present lot should read: Jacob Adriaensz. Backer (Harlingen 1608-1651 Amsterdam) Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a black tunic with a lace collar signed with monogram 'JAB' (JA in ligature, upper left) oil on canvas 97 x 74.5cm (38 3/16 x 29 5/16in). PROVENANCE: Dr. Ernest Tross, Los Angeles Sale, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, 28-29 June 1982, lot 14 Private Collection, California LITERATURE: E. de Heer and P. van den Brink, Jacob de Backer (1608/9-1651) (Amsterdam, 2008), p. 171, ill.(as whereabouts unknown), p. 246, no. A122, ill. We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Attributed to Giuseppe Angeli(Italian, 1712-1798)Sportsman Handing a Coin to a Woman with a Basket of Fruit and a Child by Her Side

German/Austrian School(18th Century)Der Vogelkäufer (The Bird Buyer)

Antonio Francesco Peruzzini(Italian, 1668-1724)A Mediterranean Landscape with Figures Boarding a Boat in Choppy Seas (a fragment)

Attributed to François de Troy(French, 1645-1730)Portrait of a Lady, Possibly Madame de Montespan, as Venus Disarming Cupid

Italian School(17th century)Portrait of Christopher Columbus

Circle of Andrea del Sarto(Italian, 1486-1530)Portrait of a Lady

Circle of Pieter Pourbus(Netherlands, 1524-1584)Portrait of a Nobleman, Three-Quarter Length, in Fur-Trimmed Black Robes

James Cranke(British, 1707-1780)Portrait of a Lady

After Sir Martin Shee(Irish, 1769-1850)Portrait of John Charles, Viscount Althorp, later 3rd Earl Spencer

School of Francis Cotes R.A.(British, 1726-1770)Portrait of a Gentleman in a Green Coat

Eduard Niczky(German, 1850-1919)Mother's Love

Attributed to John Cordrey(active England, circa 1765-1825)The Chester to London Coach

Jan van Chelminski(Polish, 1851-1925)Officers on a Snowy Road with Two Monks

Jules Girardet(French, 1856-1938)Prussian War

Paul Louis Narcisse Grolleron(French, 1848-1901)Troops Pausing on a Village Road in Winter

Antoine Blanchard(French, 1910-1988)Boulevard de la Madeleine, circa 1980

Emil Barbarini(Austrian, 1855-1930)Old England

August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck(Dutch, 1828-1901)Shepherd with His Flock in a Snowstorm

Eugène Verboeckhoven(Belgian, 1799-1881)Peasant with a Cow, Sheep, and Donkey

Eugène Verboeckhoven(Belgian, 1798-1881) and Johann Bernhard Klombeck (Dutch, 1815-1893)Herding by the Forest's Edge

Cesar de Cock(Belgian, 1823-1904)Cows and a Figure Beneath the Trees

Filippo Palizzi(Italian, 1818-1899)A Wooded Landscape with a Figure and Goats

Alfred Pollentine(British, 1836-1890)The Grand Canal

Alfred Vickers Sr.(British, 1786-1868)A Cliffside View