LAMBERT JACOBSZ (Amsterdam c.1598 – 1636 Leeuwarden)

Lambert Jacobsz (Amsterdam c.1598 – 1636 Leeuwarden)

The Evangelist Saint Luke

Oil on panel, 64 x 51.2 cm (87 x 74.5 cm); contained in a modern ebonised ripple frame of 17th-century model

Signed ‘LJacobsz. f’ (lower right)

Provenance
~ With dealer Rafael Valls, London, and exhibited at TEFAF, Maastricht, March 2002
~ Anonymous sale, Koller, Zürich, 19 September 2008, lot 3037
~ Private collection, The Netherlands, until 2025

***

Lambert Jacobsz was born in Amsterdam around 1598 as the son of the Mennonite cloth merchant Jacob Theunisz and Pietertje Lubberts, whose father was the celebrated Mennonite teacher Lubbert Gerrits (1535–1612).¹ Lambert was most probably taught the art of painting by Jan Pynas (1581–1631), who lived a stone’s throw away from his parental home on the Nieuwendijk. In 1620 Jacobsz married Aechje Thonis in Leeuwarden – the famous Dutch writer Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), a close family friend, wrote a poem in honour of the marriage. The couple settled in the Frisian capital Leeuwarden and Jacobsz, described as ‘schildenaer van Amsterdam’, painter of Amsterdam, became a citizen there in 1621. Their sons Jacob and Abraham, who later called themselves Van den Tempel, also became painters, Abraham considered one of the leading portraitists of the Golden Age. Jacobsz was widowed in 1633 and then married again with Hillegont Dircks, daughter of the famous historian Theodorus Velius. Jacobsz died at fairly young age during the plague epidemic of 1636, sadly cutting his career short.

Jacobsz’ studio in Leeuwarden attracted various promising pupils, including Jacob Backer (1608/09–1651) from 1627, who had also first studied with Pynas, and Govaert Flinck (1615–1660) from 1629. They seem to have collaborated closely, sometimes even on the same paintings, working in a studio collaboration that was similar to that of the young Rembrandt, Jan Lievens and Gerrit Dou in Leiden around the same period. Both Backer and Flinck would later move to Amsterdam and enter the studio of the established Rembrandt, where they seem to have worked as more or less independent artists.

After Jacobsz took up residence in Leeuwarden, he also began to deal in art. From 1625 or shortly thereafter, he maintained close relations with Hendrick Uylenburgh (c.1587–1661) as well as with a number of painters in Amsterdam and Utrecht, among them Rembrandt.² In Leeuwarden, Jacobsz also developed into a highly accomplished painter of portraits and history subjects. The several dozen paintings that can be attributed to him today, including the present work, evidence stylistic and thematic similarities with the paintings of artists close to Pieter Lastman (1583–1633) and with the Utrecht Caravaggists. He initially started painted small-scale history scenes, but after 1628 expanded his repertoire and began painting large-scale history pictures, presumably influenced by the arrival of Jacob Backer. Jacobsz can be considered as one of the most interesting artistic personalities of the first half of the seventeenth century, closely connected with the careers of his counterparts Rembrandt and Lievens in Leiden, who however managed to survive the epidemic and continued producing works for the several next generations.

Jacobsz painted several series and possibly individual representations of the four Evangelists. A set of the four saints of circa 1630/31 is preserved in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, which includes a Saint Luke shown en profil (fig.).³ These evangelists are thought to have been inspired by a set of the four evangelists of c.1629 by Jan Lievens, now in the museum in Bamberg.⁴ Our Saint Luke was most likely also originally part of a set of four, though the other saints are now no longer known. In handling and colouring, it is very similar to a painting by Jacob Backer representing a scholar at his desk of c.1632, now in the Leiden Collection (fig.).⁵ Our painting appears to date also from the years around 1630, and is for instance comparable to Jacobsz’ painting of St Paul the Hermit Writing in his Study of 1629,⁶ and also with his painting King David Playing the Harp of the same year, in the collection of the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden.⁷

1. For the artist, see J. Hillegers, 'Lambert Jacobsz (c. 1598–1636) en zijn werkplaats', De Vrije Fries 89 (2009), pp. 67-92 and the biography by Dr Pieter Bakker, ‘Lambert Jacobsz’ in The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed., edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, New York, 2020–23, also published on www.theleidencollection.com.
2. See Hendrik Luitje Straat, ‘Lambert Jacobsz: Schilder’, De Vrije Fries 28 (1925), pp. 71–76.
3. Oil on canvas, 100 x 90 cm, inv. no. 1809.1.
4. See Hillegers, op. cit., pp. 69-74.
5. Oil on panel, 66.4 x 50.8 cm, inv. no. JAB-100; Lloyd DeWitt, ‘A Scholar at His Desk’, in: The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 4th ed., edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Elizabeth Nogrady with Caroline Van Cauwenberge, New York, 2023–.
6. Oil on canvas, 114.5 x 99.6 cm, signed and dated ‘Lambert J. fecit / .1629.’; formerly with dealer Jack Kilgore, New York, and offered at Sothebys, London, 6 December 2012, lot 138, repr. 
7. Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 66.5 cm.