Jacob de Wit (1695 - Amsterdam - 1754) Large Ceiling Painting "The First Light"

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Jacob de Wit (1695 - Amsterdam - 1754) Large Ceiling Painting "The First Light"

About the Item

Signed and dated l.l.: J. dWit 1729 [J and D in ligature] Ceiling paintings by De Wit are always conceived from a single viewpoint and offer a glimpse into the sky. His compositions are amazingly free and informal. The figures remind of Rubens, but their colouring and movements betray the influence of Italian decorative painters who travelled through Europe, in particular Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. Pellegrini also worked in Antwerp and Amsterdam and De Wit may have known him personally. In fact, the Rijksmuseum Print room owns a sketch by De Wit after Pellegrini, showing Aurora. She is a recurrent figure in his work and the focus of the attention in our ceiling painting. Dressed in a fluttering red garment and a yellow drapery she holds up her torch, which symbolises the morning light. The torch and her garments are her traditional attributes. They are already proscribed by Cesare Ripa in his famous handbook Iconologia. Aurora as a personification of Dawn announces Apollo, who personifies the Sun. His galloping horses, which draw his chariot, emerge from behind the clouds at the left. Thus, the scene might be described as an Allegory of Dawn. Most of the other figures make gestures of worship to Apollo, including his sister Diana, who sits on a cloud at the right hand side. Diana is accompanied by a lady, presumably Flora, with an enormous basket of flowers. Flora alludes to Spring. This basket is a stock-in-trade motif of De Wit on which he often, as in the present case, placed his signature. The figures at the extreme right, a woman with a small moon on her head and another woman in a cloak adorned with scattered stars, are obviously personifications of the moon and night. They make their way out of the painting. A group of amorini give a playful accent to the scene. It was soon discovered that this massive ceiling painting originally formed part of the decoration of a saloon of Herengracht 476, which currently is adorned with a very similar ceiling also by De Wit dating of one year later. The subject is the same and this ceiling also prominently features Aurora with her torch. Throughout his productive life the artist kept an archive of all his modelli. His estate inventory lists a great number of preparatory sketches for decorative paintings, oil sketches as well as drawings. These are usually inscribed with the name of the client and dated. This is also the case with the sketch for the rediscovered ceiling piece, which is preserved in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. The artists note on the reverse reads: Blaffon voor d heer dirck van Lennep 1730 op sijne Edls Zael geschildert F. 1500 (Ceiling for Mr. Dirck van Lennep 1730 painted for the saloon of his Lordship 1500 guilders). Dirck van Lennep acquired Herengracht 476 in 1730 and had it extensively renovated. The Instalment of the ceiling painting with Apollo and Diana must have been part of that campaign. Its removal probably took place around 1800, when the interior of no. 476 was again radically renovated. In 1904, yet another renovation took place, intended to bring back something of the original splendour. It is assumed that this was the moment when the other ceiling painting by De Wit was put in place. Together with Cornelis Troost, Jacob de Wit is the best-known Dutch artist from the eighteenth century and one of the very few with an international reputation. His bright but attuned palette earned him the sobriquet the Titian of the Amstel and the Rubens of the eighteenth century, While his own name became synonymous to the type of monochrome paintings he produced so prolifically. These works, executed in grey and white to imitate carved plaster relief sculpture, are commonly known as witjes. The general audience is less familiar with his so-called zolderstukken or ceiling paintings, as they have been tucked away in the private houses of wealthy patricians. Yet, they represent the most impressive part of his output. This is not the only reason why the unexpected emergence of the present ceiling painting in Spring 2004, in New York, was such a spectacular event. It also meant that an important work could be added to his documented oeuvre. Literature: A. Staring, Jacob de Wit 1695-1754, Amsterdam 1958, pp. 89, 147 (mentions the painting that is presently in Herengracht 476 and its modello, which is in Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André) H. de La Fontaine Verwey et al., Vier eeuwen Herengracht. Geveltekeningen van alle huizen aan de gracht, twee historische overzichten en de beschrijving van elk pand en bewoners, Amsterdam 1976, p. 567 (mention of a ceiling painting by De Wit) M. den Leeuw & M. Pruijs, De Gouden Bocht van Amsterdam, The Hague 2006, pp. 164-175, ill.

Creator:
Jacob De Wit (Painter)
Dimensions:
Height: 105.12 in (267 cm)Width: 169.3 in (430 cm)Depth: 0.4 in (1 cm)
Style:
Baroque (Of the Period)
Place of Origin:
Netherlands
Period:
18th Century and Earlier
Date of Manufacture:
1729
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Hilversum, NL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU9855853085