The Return of the School by Quiringh van Brekelenkam, from the Former Eugène Schneider Collection Rediscovered
The unexpected resurgence of a previously unpublished painting by Van Brekelenkam proves, once again, that France was an essential haven for the reception of Dutch genre painting in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Estimate: €60,000/80,000
Works by Van Brekelenkam, who was so close to Gérard Dou that he assisted him in signing his parents’ will in 1646, are still rare in France. Apart from Le Bénédicité and La Visite du médecin in the collections of the Louvre, La Vie studieuse in the Palais des beaux-arts de Lille — which entered national collections in the 19th century — as well as L’Oraison, acquired in the early 1980s by the Musée des beaux-arts de Carcassonne, and a few others scattered around, his works remain a tenuous presence in France. This relative oblivion is surprising, given that the artist once graced many a French painting cabinet with his best paintings, but often without his name being remembered or mentioned. The catalog of Eugène Schneider’s collection of Northern European paintings, dispersed in April 1876 at Hôtel Drouot, is a paragon of the genre. It is also exemplary in form, in that art history offers few examples of documents in which almost all the facsimiles of the signatures at the bottom of the paintings – here 48 – are faithfully recorded, along with precise notes on their provenance. The industrialist’s collection was a veritable anthology of northern masters, providing an eloquent record of their pictorial genius. In his preface, Haro, the painter, restorer and expert, a pupil of Ingres and Delacroix, emphasized “the surety of taste, the method and the precision of mind that distinguished this eminent man”, adding: “He did not seek quantity, but above all quality; knowing how to wait, and never stopping at a question of price, he demanded in a painting not only authenticity, beauty and a perfect state of conservation, but also charm and what he called amiability.” However, in 1876, not all of Eugène Schneider’s Northern works were presented at Drouot. Among the absentees was Return to School, which Haro would perhaps have been at pains to attribute to Quiringh Gerritz Van Brekelenkam in his prestigious catalog. At the time, knowledge of the artist was still in its infancy.
Domestic Scenes
In his Galerie des peintres flamands, hollandais et allemands (1792), Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun, the rediscoverer of Vermeer (“vander Meer”), presented a plate after a painting he owned, but acknowledged his lack of information about “Brekelen Kamp”: “Although the works of this artist are not rare, no author has mentioned him; and, despite my research, I have been unable to learn which town gave birth to him, who his master was, or where he died. He most often depicted the interiors of houses or kitchens. His way of painting is close to that of Gabriel Metzu [sic]: his color is beautiful and vigorous; his compositions are simple and true. There is much to choose from in the works of this master, who has produced some fine pieces.” And until the publication of the monograph by Angelika Lasius in 1992, specialists often limited themselves to similar approximations. The Bénédicité, which entered the Louvre with the donation of Dr. Louis La Caze in 1869, still bears an apocryphal signature of Brekelenkam’s younger son, Maes! The attribution of this “new” Van Brekelenkam, appraised by Stéphane Pinta, a connoisseur of Northern painting, is now much easier. He proposes to compare it with the Domestic Care of 1648 (Leiden, Museum of Lakenhal) or the two versions of Old Woman Delousing a Young Boy, from the early 1650s, one of which is in the Kunstmuseum Basel. But the artist is never where you expect him to be, and perhaps that’s the whole point. Instinctively, the subject of this composition brings to mind countless scenes of mothers delousing their offspring. From Gerard ter Borch’s famous mother-in-law, caring for her infant in the Mauritshuis painting, to Pieter de Hooch’s Duties of a Mother in the Rijksmuseum, they have established themselves as veritable “counterparts” to breast-feeding scenes, also valorizing maternal devotion. There’s a surprise in store, however, for while the little girl adopts the customary attitude of those children indiscriminately favored by lice¬ — whatever their rank or condition — she remains, one hand resting on her mother’s left knee, in peaceful anticipation, suspended as she prepares to take off her bonnet. We are equally astonished by her brother, whose candid spontaneity thwarts, with unexpected grace, the oft-repeated clichés of genre painting, handed down from brush to brush, from master to student.
For van Brekelenkam, the school becomes more than just a setting: it becomes a space for silent exchange, moral training and social stability.
As he lifted his snack to his lips, he tried, not without some awkwardness, to maintain the pose prescribed by the painter, who had instructed him to show off his schoolbag. As soon as he’s asked, he’s done: the child points to it, using a borrowed, stately hand and forearm position, the artifice that betrays the all-too-clear desire to stage the scene and, paradoxically, makes it more plausible. Also unlike his famous elders, Van Brekelenkam indicates the presence of the family man inside the home, as he has deliberately painted his hat, coat and briefcase in the top right-hand corner. The originality of Van Brekelenkam’s approach also lies in the prominent place he accords to apprenticeship, one of his favorite motifs. As the author of The Itinerant Schoolmaster and The Lacemaker’s School teaching his pupils, and himself the father of a large brood, Van Brekelenkam’s view of this world of transmission is one of rare acuity. For the artist, the school becomes more than just a setting: it becomes a space for silent exchange, moral training and social stability, valuing patience, delicacy and the continuity of domestic duties. In this humble, skilfully orchestrated interior scene, where the presence of each object is skilfully considered, Van Brekelenkam deploys a consummate science of tonal modulation. The ochre monochrome forms a veritable symphony of earthy hues, exquisitely blending natural siennas, warmly inflected yellow ochres, umber — both natural and burnt — and warm, barely ashen grays that gently absorb the subdued light of the stained glass windows. Golden browns, faded sepias, light tobacco, golden browns, scorched ochre and the dull honey color of breads resting on the table are all nuances that compose a veritable ode to domestic harmony. The pigments, weighted down with oil and deposited in a dense, skilfully nourished paste, guide the viewer’s gaze, inviting him or her to a slow revelation of the subject and its silent harmonics: here, a geography map where we can make out the faded letters Mare intern…; there, a forgotten clothesbrush; further on, the brioche with its shiny crust or the warmer discreetly tucked under the table. The palette, tempered in this way, seems to reflect the diffuse quietude and solicitude that permeate this home. This chromatic economy is matched by a fleshy, generous, almost tactile touch, allowing Van Brekelenkam to explore the variety of materials with restrained delight: from the velvety softness of the hat to the woolly warmth of the mother’s dress, each texture becomes the occasion for a discreet yet penetrating exercise in virtuosity. From this subtle harmony emerges a domestic scene that, far from being reduced to some familiar anecdote, rises to the dignity of a silent meditation on the warmth of shelter, the modesty of shared gestures, and the peaceful nobility of humble days.
TABLEAUX, MOBILIER & OBJETS D’ART – VENTE DE PRESTIGE
Friday 25 April 2025 – 13:30 (CEST) – Live
Salle 5-6 – Hôtel Drouot – 75009 Paris
Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés
