© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Alchemist
Page 2 of 8Alchemist

1684

Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

oil on copper
31.6 x 25.3 cm
inscribed and dated in light-colored paintcentered along reverse: “Jacob Toorenvliet. fec
1684.”
JT-107

How To Cite
Aono, Junko. "Alchemist." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York.
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Alchemist
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Originating in ancient philosophy, alchemy in early modern Europe wasComparative Figuresconsidered a pseudoscience of transmutation, in which a base metal (forexample, lead) was to be transformed into a noble metal, such as gold orsilver. Reflecting contemporary perception of the mystic as well as thescientific nature of this tradition, two rather contradictory ways ofportraying the alchemist exist in the visual tradition of the northern andsouthern Netherlands. One depicts the alchemist as a charlatan in searchof the magical ability to create gold, and the other depicts him as ascientific scholar, laying the foundation for the early development ofmodern chemistry.[1]The first approach, employed throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, characterized the alchemist as the object of satire and a symbol

Fig 1. After Pieter Bruegel theElder (ca. 1525–69), possibly
workshop or immediatesurroundings of Pieter Brueghel
the Younger (ca.
1564–1637/38), Alchemist, ca.
1600–25, 46.7 x 62.3 cm, © The
Leiden Collection, New York,
PB-100of human folly. His futile experiments in changing base metals into gold
were represented as sinful quests for personal gain. In this view ofalchemy, alchemists inevitably ended up wasting precious time andmoney, thereby sacrificing the welfare of their families.(fig 1) Pieter
Brueghel the Elder’s (ca. 1525–69) drawing Alchemist, ca. 1658, depicting
the alchemist as a profligate, served as an important source of inspiration
for later generations of artists, including David III Rijckaert (1612–61), JanSteen (1626–79), and Adriaen van Ostade (1610–85).[2] In Jan Steen’s
Village Alchemist, for example, the artist depicts an elderly alchemist as
being oblivious to the poverty of his surroundings, especially that of hisown family. His young wife holds their infant in her arms and casts a
discouraged glance up at an empty moneybag hanging from the ceiling[3](fig 2).

David Teniers the Younger (1610–90) introduced the second commonFig 2. Jan Steen, The Village
Alchemist, early 1660s, oil onpanel, 41.7 x 29.8 cm (16 2/5 x 113/4 in.), The Wallace Collection,London

portrayal of the alchemist in the 1640s, and his example was followed by,among others, Thomas Wijck (1616–77), Frans van Mieris the Elder(1635–81), and Cornelis Bega (1631–64).[4] Despite the often skepticalview of the profession, alchemy was, in fact, a precursor to modern
chemistry and pharmacology. In the course of their experiments,
alchemists developed chemical processes like distillation and dissolution,and increased the knowledge of the physical world, which was of greatpractical use in, for instance, the chemistry of medicine, which distilled
herbs to make elixirs.[5] In Teniers’s Alchemist in the Mauritshuis, theFig 3. David Teniers theYounger, Alchemist, ca. 1650, oilon panel, 26.6 x 37 cm.,
Mauritshuis, The Hague, no. 261

alchemist is portrayed as a wise and humble scientist diligently absorbed
in his research and surrounded by a variety of instruments, such as© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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distillationequipment(fig3).[6]Teniers’salchemists

areoftenaccompanied by one or two assistants who take charge of the execution ofthe experiment. His laboratories do not include motifs that suggest the selfdeception and resultant misery often associated with alchemy, such as
empty moneybags or weeping families.
Jacob Toorenvliet’s interest in the alchemist as a scientist developed overmany years. In the late 1660s, undoubtedly when he was living in Vienna,
Toorenvliet first painted an image of a scholarly alchemist devoted to hisexperiment; he then repeated the subject in 1679 after he had returned
briefly to his native Leiden (fig 4).[7] In the latter picture the alchemist isdepicted as an intellectual deeply engrossed in his experiment, evinced byFig 4. Jacob Toorenvliet, AnAlchemist, 1679, oil on copper, 22x 17 cm, Nationalmuseum,Stockholm, NM 661

the books and notes on the table.[8] The depiction of an alchemist as amaster instructing his assistant is first seen in Toorenvliet’sAlchemist andHis Two Assistants, which he executed in the late 1660s.[9] The Leiden
Collection painting is dated 1684 and was executed during the artist’s
Amsterdam years. Nevertheless, the painting’s composition and style, with
two half-length figures placed close to each other and against a shaded
background, are comparable to works that the artist made during hisViennese period.
The inspiration for Toorenvliet’s positive depictions of alchemists wasundoubtedly David Teniers the Younger, whose paintings were highly
regarded by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and his successors in Vienna.
Teniers’s pictures of alchemists would have been familiar to Toorenvliet
while he was in that city. As in Teniers’s pictures, there is no allusion tomisery or deception in Toorenvliet’s paintings of alchemists.[10] In theLeiden Collection painting, Toorenvliet’s alchemist has one hand on thecrumpled pages of a manuscript resting on a work table filled with vessels
and a wooden bellows. He interacts easily with his assistant, who hascome to show him a piece of metal he has been heating in the fire partiallyvisible behind them. It is a moment of intellectual exchange, where the two
men respond to the results of the experiment they are conducting. With asurety of touch and command of his subject, Toorenvliet creates anengaging scenario, where the men’s active gesture and counter-gesturereflect the excitement of the moment and the expectation of discovery.
-Junko Aono
-2017
© 2018 The Leiden Collection

Alchemist
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Görel Cavalli-Björkman, Dutch and Flemish Paintings, vol. 2, Dutch Paintings c. 1600–ca.
1800, (Stockholm, 2005), 457; Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science?
(Exh. cat. Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum) (Greenwich, Conn., 2009), 3, 11–16.
2. For Brueghel’s drawing and Philip Galle’s print after it, see F. W. H. Hollstein,Dutch andFlemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700 (Amsterdam, 1950), 3:296;
Nadine M Orenstein, Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints (Exh. cat. New York,Metropolitan Museum of Art; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen) (New York,2001), 170–73, no. 61; cf. Matthias Winner, “Zu Bruegels ‘Alchimist,’” inPieter Bruegel undSeine Welt, ed. Otto von Simson and Matthias Winner (Berlin, 1979), 193–202. For David III
Rijckaert, see Bernadette van Haute, David III Ryckaert: A Seventeenth-Century FlemishPainter of Peasant Scenes (Turnhout, 1999), nos. 79–82, 84; for Jan Steen, see The
Alchemist, Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. no. 898); for Van Ostade, see The Alchemist,National Gallery, London (inv. no. 846) and another work in a private collection in the UnitedStates(photographattheRKD(Rijksbureauvoor

Kunsthistorische

Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History), artwork no. 120536).
3. The moneybag is joined by a bloated bladder, which was considered a variation of the themeof blowing bubbles, symbolizing transience and vanity of life. For this motif, see Eddy deJongh, Tot Lering en Vermaak: Betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen in dezeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 117–18. The
two figures behind the alchemist could be common theatrical stooges, namely thehunchback and the boor, emphasizing the folly of the alchemist’s quest. John Ingamells,TheWallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures , vol. 4, Dutch and Flemish (London, 1992),
359–60, no. P209.
4. For Teniers, see, for example, the picture in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum,Braunschweig (inv. no. 140) and the one in Wasserburg Anholt, Fürst zu Salm-Salm,Isselburg (inv. no. 389): Margret Klinge, David Teniers de Jonge: Schilderijen/tekeningen(Exh. cat. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) (Antwerp, 1991), 136–37, no.
42; and Rüdiger Klessmann, Die flämischen Gemälde des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts(Braunschweig, 2003), 102–3, no. 140. For Van Mieris, see Otto Naumann, Frans vanMieris (1635–1681) the Elder (Doornspijk, 1981), 15, no. 11; and Quentin Buvelot, ed.,Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National
Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 85–87, no. 6. Bega seems to have put more emphasis on therepresentation of still life motifs; see Peter van den Brink, ed.,Cornelis Bega: Eleganz undraue Sitten (Exh. cat. Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) (Stuttgart, 2012), nos. 69, 70. Thomas Wijck made a series ofpaintings in which the alchemist’s family sometimes appears but is not impoverished:The© 2018 The Leiden Collection

AlchemistPage 6 of 8Alchemist, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. SK489) and The Alchemist, The State
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
5. See, for example, the sixteenth-century alchemist Paracelsus, who was the founder ofmodern pharmacology: Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science? (Exh. cat.
Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum) (Greenwich, Conn., 2009), 15–16.
6. Quentin Buvelot, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis: A Summary Catalogue (Zwolle, 2004),
302–3, no. 261.
7. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A 94, 102; and Görel Cavalli-Björkman,Dutchand Flemish Paintings, vol. 2, Dutch Paintings c. 1600–ca. 1800 (Stockholm, 2005), 475,
no. NM661. Toorenvliet made another alchemist in 1676, see Susanne H. Karau,Leben undWerk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719) (Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin,2002), no. A61.
8. This type of scholar can also be found in another group of pictures dated 1679, which
represent men of learning, such as a Jewish scholar or an old man holding a book. SusanneH. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719) (Ph.D.
diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A91, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 103–4, 105.
9. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), no. B26. This picture was probably inspired byAnAlchemist and His Assistant in a Workshop (ca. 1655) by Frans van Mieris the Elder,alongside whom Toorenvliet apprenticed with his father, Abraham Toorenvliet. See Quentin
Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 85–87, no. 6.
10. Toorenvliet’s alchemist is even dressed in a fur vest and fur-trimmed hat similar to thoseworn by the alchemist in Teniers’s painting in The Hague.

Provenance(Sale, Al. Helfert, Dorotheum, Vienna, 1910).
(Possibly Sotheby’s, London, 16 November 1960, no. 103 [£200 to Moss]; sale, Galliera,Paris, 29 November 1965, no. 133).
(Sale, Christie’s, Paris, 23 June 2009, no. 38 [Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2009]).
From whom purchased by the present owner.

© 2018 The Leiden Collection

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Exhibition History
Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum, “Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science?” 26 September
2009–3 January 2010 [no number, lent by the present owner].
Williamstown, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, “An Inner World: SeventeenthCentury Dutch Genre Painting,” 5 March–17 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Frimmel, Theodor. “Jacob Toorenvliet als Wiener Maler und die Verteilung seiner Arbeiten inösterreichischen Galerien.” In Von alter und neuer Kunst . Edited by Theodor Frimmel, 75.
Vienna, 1923.
Karau, Susanne Henriette. Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719). PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002, 103–4, no. A105.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. After Jacob Toorenvliet, Alchemist with His Assistant , oil on panel, 34.3 x 25.9 cm,
Nationalgalerie, Prague.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support, a relatively thin, rectangular copper sheet, has been hammered then rolled and has
raised burrs along the reverse of all four edges. The panel does not flex when handled. There arethree brown oxidation products, two inscriptions, and a light-colored wax dot, but no wax
collection seals, stencils, labels or maker’s mark.
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A dark ground or underlayer has a gritty, sandy texture with pin-sized raised dots. The paint has
been applied smoothly with glazes wet-into-wet through the flesh tones with no areas of impasto
or low rounded brushwork. Fine brushstrokes define the figure’s hair, beard, and fur collar of hisjacket. The paint has flaked off the tops of the pin-sized raised dots and a fine network ofcraquelure has formed along most of the composition. Together with the panel’s hammeredsurface, the raised dots and craquelure give the painting a textured appearance even though it
has been smoothly painted.
The painting is unsigned and undated on the front, but is inscribed and dated twice on thereverse.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Compositional changes visible in the images and as pentimenti include shifts in the position ofthe alchemist’s proper left profile and to the fingers of the assistant’s proper right hand, which
rests on the alchemist’s shoulder. Pentimenti along the lower left corner indicate that thehorizontally oriented, folded, white paper was added after the bellows were painted, and the pot
with lid was applied after the alchemist’s proper right forearm was painted.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2009 and remains in a good state of preservation.

© 2018 The Leiden Collection