There’s more to this painting than eye-catching.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Nivaagaards Malerisamling
There’s more to this painting than eye-catching.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
After years of research and detective work, a family was reunited. However, this is not your typical story.
plot
In 1626, father and son sat and took portraits. The father sat in an armchair with a fancy mustache and goatee and a large millstone necklace around his neck – a pleated ornament many people wore in the early 17th century. posing side by side with rosy cheeks, wearing today’s children’s fashion.
This particular painting, titled “Dual portrait of a father and son,” is a vision of wealth. Not only because of the expensive looking clothes that the father and son are wearing, but also because Who paint their portraits – Cornelis De Vos.
Angela Jager, curator of old master paintings at the RKD-Netherlands Institute of Art History, said: “He was very sought after, so if you could invite him to paint your family portrait, then you are a rich and influential family.”
There is a loving and tender dynamic that comes through in the portrait.
Jager said: “The father and son hold hands so affectionately, it is like a whole in itself. You can easily imagine that this is a finished painting if it is not for the extremely careful eye.” .
Researchers
Jørgen Wadum is a consultant at the Nivaagaard Collection in Denmark and an independent researcher. Part of his job as an art conservator is to unframe the paintings and examine them meticulously from front to back and around the edges.
Wadum and Jager worked together to study ancient Dutch and Flemish paintings at the Nivaagaard Collection. When they came across De Vos’ painting of father and son, both Jager and Wadum noticed something in the lower right corner of the picture.
“There are a few knees covered by a black striped dress,” Wadum said. “We could see right away that there was a story here that we didn’t know much about.”
Apparently there was a missing person sitting next to the father and son. This prompts the pair to take action to find out who it could be.
Clue
Their first clues will come from photos showing the artwork in cleaned and restored condition. The photo further reveals that there is a hand in the bottom corner that appears to belong to a woman.
A slender finger with ornate rings suggests there is much more to see.
Camilla Perondi/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Camilla Perondi/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
“It’s really a very fashionable lady sitting here with slender fingers, several rings on her fingers,” Wadum said. “She’s holding a pair of beautifully embroidered gloves with red lining.”
This led Wadum to start searching for portraits of women sitting in De Vos’ catalog – missing a right hand, of course. It was a Google search that helped Wadum and Jager finally find their missing woman.
They came across a portrait of a woman sitting in the background with a garden on one side and some trees “which fits the picture we have here perfectly, even the background – the sky and the white clouds go well together,” Wadum said.
The mysterious woman is discovered.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Nivaagaards Malerisamling
Not only did they find their missing woman, but her portrait was actually for sale. “So this opened the door for the museum to actually buy her and reunite the family. So it was a really great day,” Jager said.
final mystery
The original painting was made in 1626. Jager speculates that the portrait was probably cut out in the first half of the 19th century.
As for why the painting was cut in half, Jager said the original painting could have been damaged by water or fire.
“This could also explain why we only have the woman’s face and not her body,” notes Wadum.
The paintings now hang side by side at the Nivaagaard Collection, the family reunion after nearly two centuries of separation.
Family reunited.
Jørgen Wadum/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Jørgen Wadum/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
The next stage in Wadum and Jager’s research is finding Who the family in the picture is. And they are also working on another reunion next year.
“So it’s a spoiler here and next spring we’ll bring [paintings] together again [that] haven’t been together since 1801,,” Wadum said.
And Wadum poses another question to close: how many paintings do we come across in museums that look intact but are actually incomplete?
