HANS VAN HOUTEN (Antwerp c.1578 – after c.1630 Amsterdam?)
Hans van Houten (Antwerp c.1578 – after c.1630 Amsterdam?)
A Seated Hermit
Oil on panel, 37.8 x 46 cm (14.9 x 18.1 inch); contained in an ebonised frame of 17th-century model
Signed ‘v Houten f’ (middle right)
Provenance
~ Probably identical with ‘Een lesende Heremyt, door Van Hout’ ('a reading hermit by Van Hout'), in auction Samuel van Huls (1655–1734), The Hague, 3 September 1737 lot 149
~ With art dealer Jacob Herman Jan Mellaart (1895–1972), 1936
~ Collection J.C.M. Hoog (1865–1950), Haarlem, and by descent to his grandson, by whom sold in 2024
Literature
~ Abraham Bredius, ‘De schilder Hans van Houten’, Oud Holland, vol. LIV, 1937, pp. 24-25, repr.
~ W.R. Valentiner ‘Zu Hans van Houten’, Oud Holland, vol. LV, 1938, p. 215.
Exhibited
Winter-tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit particulier bezit, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1940, cat. no. 35
***
This recently rediscovered painting is the only known work by the mysterious painter Hans van Houten, born c.1578, apparently painted around 1630, possibly in Leiden. The painting was first discovered by Dr Abraham Bredius, who published it in a small article in the art-historical journal Oud Holland in 1937 (a copy of the article is glued to the back of the cradled panel). This article is still the main source of information on the painter, who married in Amsterdam in 1620, aged 42, his profession specified as ‘schilder’, painter, which rules out the possibility of him having been a talented amateur.1 As noted by Bredius, the handling of the head and hands of the hermit is ‘uitmuntend’, outstanding, although he also commented in less glowing terms on the state of preservation of the painting. Recent professional cleaning has however revealed that the paint layers are in a good state of preservation, the loose handling possibly misinterpreted by Bredius as over-cleaning. We may add to Bredius’s observations that the execution of the still-life at lower right and the rocky surface against which the hermit rests are also of outstanding quality.
Bredius dated the present painting around 1630, presumably because of stylistic similarities to the works of the youthful Rembrandt (1606–1669), Jan Lievens (1607–1674) and their first pupil Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), who shared a studio in Leiden around that period – the loose execution, sombre tonality, subject matter and atmosphere of the painting are certainly comparable, though it remains unclear how an artist of rather advanced years from Amsterdam would have undergone the influence of two young painters from Leiden. An example of a similar painting by Rembrandt from this period is the Christ in Emmaus of c.1629 in the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris (fig.).2
Bredius attempted to identify several other works by Van Houten, only known from archival references, such as ‘2 schilderijen van boerengezelschappen van J. van Houten’ (two paintings of peasant scenes by J. van Houten), listed in an the c.1660 inventory of Melchior Robyn of Amsterdam and ‘Een gezelschap van Van Houten’ (a company by Van Houten) in the 1697 inventory of Isack Gerard of Leiden.3 The main question that remains was also posed by Bredius: ‘Waar is al zijn werk gebleven?’ (‘where did all his work go?’). The present painting is so close in execution to anonymous paintings from the orbit of Rembrandt and Lievens c.1630 that it may be supposed that at least some of them might also be by Van Houten. It also raises major art-historical questions as to which other artists of previous generations may have been working in proximity to the Rembrandt/Lievens studio during the period – all it takes is one signed work, and an entirely new perspective is given…
1. Abraham Bredius, ‘De schilder Hans van Houten’, Oud Holland, vol. LIV, 1937, pp. 24-25.
2. Oil on paper, mounted on panel, 37.4 x 42.3 cm, inv. no. 409; J. Bruyn (et al.), Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Boston/Lancaster/Dordrecht 1982-, vol. I (1982), no. A16.
3. Bredius, op. cit., p. 25.
