JAN VAN BIJLERT
1597/98 - Utrecht - 1671
A Shepherd Playing The Bagpipes
Oil on Panel
16 ¾ x 13 in (42.5 x 33 cm)
Signed upper right
Provenance
Private collection, France.
We are grateful to Dr Paul Huys Janssen for confirming that the present painting is an autograph work by Jan van Bijlert. He has suggested that its pendant may be 'Girl with a Cat', which is now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. (i)
Bijlert was the pupil of Abraham Bloemart and his father Herman van Bylen. A native of Utrecht, he travelled extensively in France and Italy and spent some years with Gerrit van Honthorst in Rome. One of the so-called 'Utrecht Carravaggists' he was strongly influenced by the great Italian painter and loosely adopted his style. He was in the Utrecht Guild in 1630 and its doyen in 1655 and from 1666-1669. His pupils included Abraham Willaerts and Ludolf de Jongh.
The artist is most well known for his pastoral scenes and genre figures representing shepherds and shepherdesses as single half-length or three-quarter length figures, or in narrative representations. In his representation of the shepherd in the present painting, the artist has exploited 'chiaroscuro', the marked feature of Caravaggio's work. The strong light which illuminates the back and side of the shepherd contrasts with the dark grey-green shades of the background, making the figure project from the picture plane. Bijlert has rendered the different materials and textures with great skill, from the soft fur of the animal skin to the delicate folds of the drapery, and the gentle luminosity of his skin. These aspects are further complemented by the harmonious and subtly graded shades of browns, blues, gray-greens and whites.
The growing importance of the pastoral within the arts during the 17th century is related to the discovery, by wealthy Dutch burghers, of outdoor life and its accompanying pursuits. They left the busy cities and sought relaxation in the countryside which soon filled with large country homes. Indeed, Jan van Bijlert's paintings of shepherds found their way into a number of noble and notable collections including, as early as 1632, 'two paintings, in each a shepherdess' mentioned in the inventory of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik and a shepherd and shepherdess by the artist are listed in the King of Bohemia's estate in 1633.
BIOGRAPHY OF JAN VAN BIJLERT
Jan van Bijlert was born in Utrecht in 1597 to the glass painter Herman Beerntsz. van Bijlert and his wife Elisabeth Willemsdr van Laeckervelt. It is thought that Bijlert began his training in his father’s studio before being apprenticed to Abraham Bloemaert.
After his initial training, Bijlert visited France and then travelled to Italy, where he is first recorded in 1621 in Rome. He became a member of the Schildersbent, a society of primarily Northern European painters working in Rome, who gave him the nickname 'Aeneas'. During this time, Bijlert and his other fellow artists from Utrecht were strongly influenced by the work of Caravaggio (1571-1610) and became known as the Utrecht Caravaggisti. However, Bijlert is not primarily a Caravaggist painter; he was also a Classicist and a painter of realistic Dutch genre scenes and portraits, and was well known for his allegorical pastoral works.
Bijlert returned to Utrecht in 1624 and a year later was married in Amsterdam to Margrieta Kemings. Bijlert and his wife had moved back to Utrecht by 1627 when their first son was baptised there. Bijlert joined the Guild of St Luke in Utrecht in 1630, and was appointed dean from 1632 to 1636. He enjoyed a prominent position in that city, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Bijlert’s pupils include Bertram de Fouchier (1609-1673), Abraham Willaerts (1613-1669) and Ludolph de Jongh (1616-1679).
(i) The paintings are nearly identical in size, with the Baltimore picture portraying a three quarter-length girl looking to left, providing the mirror image of our painting. Mr Huys Janssen dates Girl with a Cat to circa 1635 - 1645, which is also consistent with the dating of the present painting.