.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘I have seen in the collection of Mr. Jakob Hiskia Machado in The Hague, a small piece by him [Ary de Vois], showing a soldier, so naturally, artfully and finely painted, that it may be considered under the art of the most worthy Dutch masters of that time.’
-Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1721)
Arnold Houbraken’s laudatory description of a small painting of a soldier by Ary de Vois in the collection of the wealthy Jewish businessman Jacob Hiskia Machado (1686-1751) speaks to the high esteem in which such paintings by de Vois were held in the period. A contemporary of Frans van Mieris – with whom de Vois’ works have often been confused – de Vois was among a group of artists active in Leiden who collectively came to be known as the fijnschilders (‘fine painters’) on account of their exquisite technique and careful attention to the minutest of details.
De Vois was probably born in Utrecht in the first half of the 1630s, the son of Alewijn de Vois who was appointed organist of the Sint Pieterskerk in Leiden in 1635. Though no documentary records are known, he probably first trained in Utrecht with Nicolaus Knüpfer and then in Leiden with Abraham van den Tempel before joining the Leiden Guild of St. Luke on 16 October 1653, where he served as headman in 1664-65 and dean in 1662-64 and 1667-68. While Houbraken claimed that de Vois’ marriage to Maria van der Vecht on 5 February 1656 caused him to become idle, his surviving works and those mentioned in inventories belie this suggestion. Indeed, he continued to pay dues to the painters guild until 1677.
Like other Dutch cities, in the final decades of the sixteenth century the Leiden schutterij (‘civic guard’) had developed into a citizen militia which protected the city from both external attack and internal revolt. Since the late middle ages, Leiden hosted a Guild of Saint George for archers (founded 1386) and, later, a Guild of Saint Sebastian for both archers and those who carried firearms (founded 1477). Like other guilds, those for archers and riflemen held communal feasts and buried their deceased colleagues. On account of the ongoing threat of war, militia members also kept a rotational night watch to maintain public order once the city’s watchmen were relieved of their duties. While, in theory, all citizens and residents of the city were required to participate, in practice large segments of the population were ineligible, either because they could not afford the costs of purchasing their own uniforms and equipment, held particular offices or professions or belonged to certain faiths.
In 1578, Leiden codified the organization of its militia by combining the two guilds into a civic guard, replete with a more militaristic organizational structure. The militia was divided into vendels (‘companies’), which were then subdivided into quarters or corporalships with further subdivisions called rotten (‘squads’), each with corresponding officers. The militia was led by the deken (‘dean’), always one of the city’s four burgomasters. Below him were the captains, generally drawn from the city’s most affluent residents, who were assisted by additional officers, including the ensign, or standard bearer. Unlike other officers, who were generally elected by members of the militia, the ensign was appointed directly by the city’s burgomaster. Given their high mortality rate in times of war, militia regulations stipulated that ensigns be unmarried.
As Leiden’s population grew in the course of the seventeenth century, so, too, did its citizen militia. At the time of de Vois’ painting, Leiden had eight vendels, each consisting of eight corporalships, which were subdivided into three squads. While in 1599 there were roughly nine hundred militiamen in Leiden, by the middle of the seventeenth century the number swelled to nearly twice that figure, equating to roughly one out of every eight adult males in the city (see P. Knevel, Burgers in het geweer: de schutterijen in Holland, 1550-1700, Hilversum, 1994, p. 190).
With the notable exception of a handful of paintings commissioned from Joris van Schooten between 1626 and 1650 (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden; Stadhuis Leiden), large-scale group civic guard portraits of the type favored in cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem did not gain a foothold in the artistic milieu of Leiden. The city’s painters instead frequently portrayed their sitters in individual, often small-scale and meticulously rendered portraits in military dress. Like de Vois, the Leiden painters Gerrit Dou (The Leiden Collection, New York, inv. no. GD-113; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. no. GE-891), Dominicus van Tol (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-C-21) and Frans van Mieris (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, inv. no. KMSsp565) are known to have portrayed militia members and other military figures in this fashion. A life-size, full-length portrait of Gerrit Leendertsz. van Grootveld, captain of the city’s Blauwe Vendel, by Jacob Fransz. van der Merck is also known (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden).
When this painting last appeared on the market in 1995, Dr. Karen Schaffers-Bodenhausen of the Stichting Iconographisch Bureau in The Hague identified the arms on the ensign’s flag as those of Leiden. Much like the most iconic painting of its type – Rembrandt’s Standard Bearer of 1636 (fig. 1) – de Vois’ portrait testifies to the municipal pride and civic mindedness of the Republic’s elite as well as its military prowess. In both paintings, the man is dashingly dressed, his right arm akimbo as if to convey an air of unbridled confidence as he firmly, if effortlessly, grasps the flagpole with his left hand. In the painting’s lower right, several militiamen can be seen discharging their firearms. Unlike the paintings by van Tol and van der Merck, the building in the background here does not appear to correspond with the appearance of the gate or meeting halls of either the Saint George or Saint Sebastian guilds on the city’s Doelengracht (demolished 1821).
The municipal archives in Leiden preserve documents relating to the militia companies going back to the end of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, the membership lists for the years 1664-68 are missing, which prevents a positive identification of the sitter. Nevertheless, on account of the color of the standard he holds, it can reasonably be assumed that he served as the ensign for the ‘Witte Vendel’ and likely commissioned de Vois to paint his portrait upon his promotion to the post.
The painting must have enjoyed a certain degree of fame in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, its early provenance only recently having come to light. In the final decades of the eighteenth century, the painting belonged to the lawyer, statesman and connoisseur Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, comte d’Hannonville, in whose 1788 sale it featured. The price the painting achieved at de Calonne’s sale was exceeded by only two other works by de Vois sold at auction in France in the whole of the eighteenth century – the Self-Portrait at an easel of 1673 (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and the Hunter holding a partridge and game basket (Petit Palais, Paris).
The painting remained in France in the early nineteenth century, as indicated both by its 1806 sale from the estate of Didier-Michel de Saint-Martin and, perhaps more intriguingly, by the fact that Théodore Géricault produced a lithograph after it in or around 1817 (fig. 2). Géricault’s lithograph is extremely rare, having only been printed in a handful of posthumous impressions, and provides no further clues about the painting’s whereabouts after it left Saint-Martin’s possession. Nothing further can be said definitively of the painting’s provenance until its reemergence nearly thirty years ago. A ‘Standard Bearer’ by de Vois was exhibited at Leeds in 1868 from the collection of E.A. Leatham, Esq., which may plausibly be associated with the present painting; however, the existence of a second, larger (34 x 26 ½ in.) painting depicting a standard bearer given to de Vois at a sale held Christie’s, London, 24 February 1933, lot 34, throws into question exactly which work was exhibited.
-Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1721)
Arnold Houbraken’s laudatory description of a small painting of a soldier by Ary de Vois in the collection of the wealthy Jewish businessman Jacob Hiskia Machado (1686-1751) speaks to the high esteem in which such paintings by de Vois were held in the period. A contemporary of Frans van Mieris – with whom de Vois’ works have often been confused – de Vois was among a group of artists active in Leiden who collectively came to be known as the fijnschilders (‘fine painters’) on account of their exquisite technique and careful attention to the minutest of details.
De Vois was probably born in Utrecht in the first half of the 1630s, the son of Alewijn de Vois who was appointed organist of the Sint Pieterskerk in Leiden in 1635. Though no documentary records are known, he probably first trained in Utrecht with Nicolaus Knüpfer and then in Leiden with Abraham van den Tempel before joining the Leiden Guild of St. Luke on 16 October 1653, where he served as headman in 1664-65 and dean in 1662-64 and 1667-68. While Houbraken claimed that de Vois’ marriage to Maria van der Vecht on 5 February 1656 caused him to become idle, his surviving works and those mentioned in inventories belie this suggestion. Indeed, he continued to pay dues to the painters guild until 1677.
Like other Dutch cities, in the final decades of the sixteenth century the Leiden schutterij (‘civic guard’) had developed into a citizen militia which protected the city from both external attack and internal revolt. Since the late middle ages, Leiden hosted a Guild of Saint George for archers (founded 1386) and, later, a Guild of Saint Sebastian for both archers and those who carried firearms (founded 1477). Like other guilds, those for archers and riflemen held communal feasts and buried their deceased colleagues. On account of the ongoing threat of war, militia members also kept a rotational night watch to maintain public order once the city’s watchmen were relieved of their duties. While, in theory, all citizens and residents of the city were required to participate, in practice large segments of the population were ineligible, either because they could not afford the costs of purchasing their own uniforms and equipment, held particular offices or professions or belonged to certain faiths.
In 1578, Leiden codified the organization of its militia by combining the two guilds into a civic guard, replete with a more militaristic organizational structure. The militia was divided into vendels (‘companies’), which were then subdivided into quarters or corporalships with further subdivisions called rotten (‘squads’), each with corresponding officers. The militia was led by the deken (‘dean’), always one of the city’s four burgomasters. Below him were the captains, generally drawn from the city’s most affluent residents, who were assisted by additional officers, including the ensign, or standard bearer. Unlike other officers, who were generally elected by members of the militia, the ensign was appointed directly by the city’s burgomaster. Given their high mortality rate in times of war, militia regulations stipulated that ensigns be unmarried.
As Leiden’s population grew in the course of the seventeenth century, so, too, did its citizen militia. At the time of de Vois’ painting, Leiden had eight vendels, each consisting of eight corporalships, which were subdivided into three squads. While in 1599 there were roughly nine hundred militiamen in Leiden, by the middle of the seventeenth century the number swelled to nearly twice that figure, equating to roughly one out of every eight adult males in the city (see P. Knevel, Burgers in het geweer: de schutterijen in Holland, 1550-1700, Hilversum, 1994, p. 190).
With the notable exception of a handful of paintings commissioned from Joris van Schooten between 1626 and 1650 (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden; Stadhuis Leiden), large-scale group civic guard portraits of the type favored in cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem did not gain a foothold in the artistic milieu of Leiden. The city’s painters instead frequently portrayed their sitters in individual, often small-scale and meticulously rendered portraits in military dress. Like de Vois, the Leiden painters Gerrit Dou (The Leiden Collection, New York, inv. no. GD-113; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. no. GE-891), Dominicus van Tol (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-C-21) and Frans van Mieris (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, inv. no. KMSsp565) are known to have portrayed militia members and other military figures in this fashion. A life-size, full-length portrait of Gerrit Leendertsz. van Grootveld, captain of the city’s Blauwe Vendel, by Jacob Fransz. van der Merck is also known (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden).
When this painting last appeared on the market in 1995, Dr. Karen Schaffers-Bodenhausen of the Stichting Iconographisch Bureau in The Hague identified the arms on the ensign’s flag as those of Leiden. Much like the most iconic painting of its type – Rembrandt’s Standard Bearer of 1636 (fig. 1) – de Vois’ portrait testifies to the municipal pride and civic mindedness of the Republic’s elite as well as its military prowess. In both paintings, the man is dashingly dressed, his right arm akimbo as if to convey an air of unbridled confidence as he firmly, if effortlessly, grasps the flagpole with his left hand. In the painting’s lower right, several militiamen can be seen discharging their firearms. Unlike the paintings by van Tol and van der Merck, the building in the background here does not appear to correspond with the appearance of the gate or meeting halls of either the Saint George or Saint Sebastian guilds on the city’s Doelengracht (demolished 1821).
The municipal archives in Leiden preserve documents relating to the militia companies going back to the end of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, the membership lists for the years 1664-68 are missing, which prevents a positive identification of the sitter. Nevertheless, on account of the color of the standard he holds, it can reasonably be assumed that he served as the ensign for the ‘Witte Vendel’ and likely commissioned de Vois to paint his portrait upon his promotion to the post.
The painting must have enjoyed a certain degree of fame in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, its early provenance only recently having come to light. In the final decades of the eighteenth century, the painting belonged to the lawyer, statesman and connoisseur Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, comte d’Hannonville, in whose 1788 sale it featured. The price the painting achieved at de Calonne’s sale was exceeded by only two other works by de Vois sold at auction in France in the whole of the eighteenth century – the Self-Portrait at an easel of 1673 (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and the Hunter holding a partridge and game basket (Petit Palais, Paris).
The painting remained in France in the early nineteenth century, as indicated both by its 1806 sale from the estate of Didier-Michel de Saint-Martin and, perhaps more intriguingly, by the fact that Théodore Géricault produced a lithograph after it in or around 1817 (fig. 2). Géricault’s lithograph is extremely rare, having only been printed in a handful of posthumous impressions, and provides no further clues about the painting’s whereabouts after it left Saint-Martin’s possession. Nothing further can be said definitively of the painting’s provenance until its reemergence nearly thirty years ago. A ‘Standard Bearer’ by de Vois was exhibited at Leeds in 1868 from the collection of E.A. Leatham, Esq., which may plausibly be associated with the present painting; however, the existence of a second, larger (34 x 26 ½ in.) painting depicting a standard bearer given to de Vois at a sale held Christie’s, London, 24 February 1933, lot 34, throws into question exactly which work was exhibited.