Lord and lady having wine
|
| Lord and lady having wine |
|---|
| Jan Vermeer , 1658-1660 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 66.3 x 76.5 cm |
| Gemäldegalerie (Berlin) |
Herr und Dame bei Wein (also The Glass of Wine ) is an oil painting by Jan Vermeer . The 66.3 centimeter high and 76.5 centimeter wide genre painting was probably made between 1658 and 1660 and is therefore one of his early works. It shows a seated woman drinking wine and a standing man with a mug in his hand. The painting Herr und Dame bei Wein has been part of the collection of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin since 1901.
Image description
The picture Mr. and Lady at Wine shows two people in the center of the picture. You are in a section of the room with diagonal, alternating green and brown tiles. The lady sits in profile to the viewer in front of a table on which an oriental-looking carpet lies. Behind her stands the man, shifted slightly to the left. He wears a gray-green robe and a black hat, which anonymizes his face through the shadow he casts. His gaze is fixed on the glass of wine. On the wall behind him in the left corner is a picture with a striking gold frame. It is a landscape painting in portrait format. The front window in the left wall is slightly open and lets light into the room. It is a precious stained glass window with a coat of arms in the middle. The rear window is locked. The lower part of the window is completely covered with shutters. A little light, filtered through a blue curtain, flows into the room through the upper part of the window. On the chair in the foreground, closest to the viewer, lies a stringed instrument on a blue velvet cushion. An identical pillow is also on the bench between the window wall and the table.
The woman, dressed in a dress made of red silk , who also wears a white cap, is shown drinking wine . She has just finished her glass and has it in front of her face so that the light reflection on the glass covers her eyes. This can be interpreted as hiding from the man standing next to her. He has his right hand on the white wine jug with a brass lid, but does not have a glass of his own, which suggests that he would like to refill the woman. The wine jug forms the center of the painting. Various other elements, such as its color but also the way the light is directed, repeatedly draw the viewer's gaze to the jug.
iconography
The person constellation gives an indication of an impending love affair of a dubious character. Nevertheless, the painting does not convey superficial eroticism , but a reminder for a virtuous life. The motif of temperantia is taken up in the coat of arms disk with the attribute of the reins . The viewer assumes the position of a voyeur who observes this un virtuous scene from outside through a window. This becomes particularly clear when you compare the picture with the Braunschweig counterpart: the girl with the wine glass . There the lady interacts with the viewer by looking directly at him questioningly, while the Berlin painting stands for anonymity.
Provenance
The earliest evidence of the painting Lord and Lady at Wine comes from 1736, when it was auctioned on July 18 with the number 16 as part of the Jan van Loon collection in Delft for 52 guilders. In 1785 the painting is listed in the estate register of John Hope (1737–1784) from Amsterdam. Heirs to the picture were his sons Thomas Hope (1769-1831) and Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839), who settled in England in 1794. Thomas Hope's son, Henry Thomas Hope (1808–1862), was the next owner of the painting, who in turn bequeathed it to his daughter Henrietta Adela (1843–1913). She had been married to Henry Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, since 1861 and bequeathed the gentleman and lady over wine to their son Henry Pelham-Clinton, 8th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme (1866-1941). At the auction of the Hope Pelham-Clinton collection in 1898, the London art dealer P. & D. Colnaghi acquired the entire collection, which also included the Vermeer painting. The Colnaghi company worked closely with the Berlin banker Robert von Mendelssohn and the Kaiser Friedrich Museum Association . On the part of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie , the art historian Max Jakob Friedländer took part in the negotiations. From 1898 to 1901 the painting was initially on loan on Berlin's Museum Island, as financing had not yet been clarified. It was not until 1901 that the picture was bought for the Gemäldegalerie for 165,000 marks .
In 2000 the picture was awarded to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for an exhibition on painting from the Golden Age . In return, the letter reader in blue came to Berlin for this time.
literature
- Norbert Schneider : Vermeer all paintings. Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-6377-7 .
- Arthur K. Wheelock: Vermeer . DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-8321-7339-0 .
- Jan Kelch , Rainald Grosshans (ed.): Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 50 masterpieces. Scala, London 2001, ISBN 3-8030-4022-1 .
- Tilmann von Stockhausen : Gemäldegalerie Berlin. The history of their acquisitions policy 1830–1904. Nicolai, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87584-769-0 .
- Albrecht Dohmann: Vermeer van Delft , Leipzig 1955.
- Carolin Bohlmann (Ed.): Light structure. The light in the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer , exhibition cat., Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, November 18, 2011 - February 26, 2012, Petersberg 2011.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin. The history of their acquisitions policy 1830–1904. P. 332.
- ^ Jan Kelch, Rainald Grosshans (Ed.): Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 50 masterpieces. Scala, London 2001, p. 68.
- ↑ Carolin Bohlmann (Ed.): Light structure. The light in the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer . Exhibition catalog, Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, November 18, 2011 - February 26, 2012. Petersberg 2011, p. 94-96 .
- ^ Albrecht Dohmann: Vermeer van Delft . Leipzig 1955, p. 13 .
- ↑ Article on berlinonline.de , accessed on July 13, 2008