Young Man In Beret Smoking A Pipe. Nordic Caravaggio School From The 17th Century

Workshop of Jan van Bijlert (1598-1671) Oil on canvas Very beautiful frame called “Cassetta” in molded wood with burr walnut veneer in its center and golden motifs. Total dimensions with frame: 98 x 82 cm. The canvas alone: 77 x 62 cm This beautiful Dutch painting is what we call a Caravaggio school from the north and more precisely from Utrecht. Unlike works of the same “current”, these painters often painted their subjects on a light background. It represents a young man in a feathered beret, smoking a long pipe. Dressed in a large buttoned coat and a green scarf tied around his neck, he wears a heavy cape over his left shoulder. “During the first decade of the 17th century, Nordic painters made the trip to Rome, which had become traditional for all Western European artists wishing to escape provincialism, that is to say, backward mannerism. Utrecht, city in the south of the Netherlands, where painters such as Hendrick Ter Brugghen (1588-1629), Gerrit von Honthorst (1590-1656), Dirck van Baburen (1570-1624) and Jan van Bijlert (1598-1671) reported from Rome the revolutionary art of Caravaggio (around 1571-1610), will become the center of a new school and a new style, where the fusion of Caravagism and the Nordic spirit takes place, which will inspire the entire great Dutch painting (apart from Rembrandt). » From the Renaissance and especially in the 17th century, artists finally freed themselves from religious subjects and opened themselves to all kinds of secular aspirations, without this in any way altering the valor of their faith. Biography Jan van Bijlert Dutch painter, born in 1597 or 1598 in Utrecht, he died there in 1671. It was first with his father, the glass painter Herman Beerntsz. Van Bijlert, that he seems to have served his apprenticeship. After his death – according to Sandrart, from 1616 – he joined the workshop of Abraham Bloemaert in his town. He then undertook an extended journey, which took him first to France and then, in the early 1620s, to Rome, where he stayed for several years, probably until 1624. There he met some of his compatriots, including Jan Gerritsz. Bronchorst, Cornelis Van Poelenburgh and Willem Molyn, with whom he founded in 1623 a support group mainly intended for artists from the north, the Bentvueghels. The group gave van Bijlert the nickname Æneas. It is likely that at this time, the artist had already painted a lot. However, no work from this period can be attributed to him with certainty today, which is undoubtedly due to the fact that his early style differs completely from that of the works he would later produce. The oldest known works of his actually date back to the mid-1620s and are marked by the influence of Guido Reni and Caravaggio, as well as their disciples, particularly Gerrit van Honthorst. In 1624, he returned to his hometown, where he remained practically until the end of his life. Reference work: Benedict Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, second edition, revised and enlarged by Luisa Vertova, Allemandi, Torino, 1989, vol. III, nn. 1072, 1073, 1074, 1075, 1182, 1189, 1191. Very good state of conservation. Sold with a certificate