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A man dressed as an Oriental, presumably Marinus Lowysse (1598 – 1645), c. 1638-40, c. 1638-40

Jacob Adriaensz. Backer

Exhibited by Koetser Gallery

Material Oil on Canvas

Dimensions 64 × 53.1 cm

Price Available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

When we turn our attention to the Man dressed as an oriental there is nothing in the pose that marks the painting as a portrait. On the contrary, this typical presentation, left shoulder to the picture plane, face turned to the left, no hands to be seen, was used by Backer every so often for his ‘faces’. The dressing-up of the model in an exotic costume and a turban, too, might be an indication that the picture was meant as a study project for a large history painting or a portrait historié. The exotic necklace of precious stones the man has hung around his neck is another indication that the picture is a tronie, not a portrait in the strict sense. This remarkable necklace, apparently a studio prop, can be found on two other pictures by Backer, both to be dated around 1638, the Boy with a red cloak and gold necklace, in the Royal Museum in Antwerp and on a Young man with a velvet cloak and gold necklace.

Although the painting is certainly not a portrait in the strictest sense, the concentrated gaze of the male model feels highly individual. According to Erna Kok, Backer portrayed one of his important customers, Marinus Lowysse, in this painting. Marinus Lowysse (1598-1645) was a rich merchant and heavily involved with the VOC and later WIC. In 1632 he married Eva Ment, the widow of the Governor General of the Dutch Indies, Jan Pietersz Coen. After Coen’s death in 1629, his widow returned to the Netherlands. Marinus Lowysse married Eva Ment three years later, in 1632, but they probably had met before in Batavia. The couple was very wealthy and we know that they had commissioned a large painting from Jacob Backer in 1640, a Portrait historié with Eva Ment, Marinus Lowysse, their children and Christ and the Canaanite woman, nowadays in Middelburg.

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Provenance

Private collection, United Kingdom (?), as by Gustaf Carl Pilo (according to an (18th/19th c.) English label to the reverse, no. 338 and no. 16); Sale Stockholm (Bukowskis), 27 May 2009, lot 257, as by Pilo; Jan Six, Amsterdam; private collection, New York, 2011 – 2024; Koetser Gallery, Zurich.

Literature

P.A.B van den Brink, ‘Tussen Rubens and Rembrandt: Jacob Adriaensz Backer als portret-en-historie schilder in Amsterdam’ (Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 2016), pp. 18-20, fig. 12.