Old Testament Figure, Probably KingSolomon

ca. 1685–90

Arent de Gelder(Dordrecht 1645 – 1727 Dordrecht)

105.3 x 94.5 cm

oil on canvas
signed on separate piece of canvas: “ADeGelder f.” (“AD” in ligature)
AG-104Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon
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How To Cite
Manuth, Volker. "Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
This page is available on the site's Archive. PDF of every version of this page is available on the Archive,
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon
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The sumptuously dressed Oriental ruler in Arent de Gelder’s imposing, life-

Comparative Figures

sized painting has all the attributes of power, including an exotic turban
elaborately wound and adorned with pearls, a costly ermine cloak, and agold scepter, but his demeanor is that of a man weighed down by worldlyconcerns. With his eyes lowered and darkened in shadow and a facial
expression that is resolute but muted, he stares off to his right,
undoubtedly reflecting deeply on issues of moral and ethical consequence.
The specific matters that have come before this potentate are not known,largely because painting is a fragment of a history painting that wasoriginally much larger. At some point the canvas support was cropped on
the left.[1] It is likely that this ruler is an Old Testament king.[2] Arent deFig 1. Aernt de Gelder, KingDavid, 1680–85, oil oncanvas, 109.5 x 114.5
cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,SK-A-2695

Gelder’s King David, now in Amsterdam, which can be dated to 1680–83(fig 1), and the figure of Ahasuerus in Ahasuerus and Haman of 1682–85,
now in Birmingham (fig 2), wear comparable cloaks of royal distinction.[3]One can deduce the identity of this particular Old Testament king througha consideration of his age. For example, his youthfulness makes him
unlikely to be King David. As in De Gelder’s Amsterdam painting (fig 1),
King David was traditionally portrayed as a bearded old man after hisaccession to the throne. It is also unlikely that the painting depicts thePersian king Ahasuerus, despite the fact that he was often portrayedholding a golden scepter, since he was generally shown as an elderly man
with a beard (fig 2).[4] De Gelder’s painting Esther’s Banquet of ca. 1680
in Dordrecht, in which the king is younger and beardless, cannot serve asa point of reference, because his face is largely a recent reconstruction.[5]Fig 2. Arent deGelder, Ahasuerus and Haman,
1680–84, oil on canvas, 138.5 x
116.8 cm, The Barber Institute ofFine Arts, University ofBirmingham, Edgbaston

The Old Testament figure’s youthful appearance and beardlessness
suggest that he is King Solomon. It is conceivable that the complete scene
represented Solomon passing judgment on two women, both of whomclaimed to be the mother of the same child (1 Kings 3:16–28). In this scene
Solomon is traditionally portrayed as a young king on the throne, frequently
passing judgment while pointing down with his scepter. There arenumerous depictions of this composition. Worthy of mention is anengraving by Boëtius Adamsz Bolswert after a lost painting by Peter Paul
Rubens (1577–1640) (fig 3). Another prominent example would havebeen known to De Gelder, namely, the marble relief by Artus Quellinus theElder (1609–68) in the tribunal (vierschaar) of the Amsterdam town hallbuilt between 1650 and 1664 (fig 4).

Fig 3. Boëtius Adamsz Bolswert
after Peter Paul Rubens, The
Judgment of Solomon, 1630–33,engraving, 44 x 51.3 cm, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NewYork, The Elisha Whittelsey
Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey
Fund, 1951, 51.501.7016,
www.metmuseum.org© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon
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De Gelder, Rembrandt’s last pupil, remained faithful to his master’s late
expressive style throughout his career, even in the face of the prevailingclassicizing fashion. Although his sense of form was less stable thanRembrandt’s, his palette was more adventurous and colorful, partly
through his effective use of colored grounds and other under layers ofpaint. Arnold Houbraken describes how De Gelder varied his application ofpaint to depict different textiles and patterns: he “scratched out theappearance of the embroidery or the threads of the fringe with the butt ofFig 4. Artus Quellinus the Elder,Group above Portal, Magistrates’
Chamber, 1655, marble
relief, Royal Palace (Paleis op deDam), Amsterdam, © Stichting
Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam

his paintbrush, or by any means possible, if only it furthered his aim; and it
is astonishing how natural and powerful such an approach sometimes
looks from a distance.”[6] The present painting beautifully exemplifies thistechnique, for such scratching into the wet paint, both broad and thin,occurs everywhere on the figure’s clothing. De Gelder’s vigorous
technique of scratching is particularly evident in Solomon’s brown robe,
where it both enlivens its form and gives it structure. De Gelder’scharacteristic warm palette and his richly varied application of paint havean amazing ability to capture the surface qualities of different materials ina suggestive but convincing way.
It is difficult to date this picture precisely on the basis of stylistic

Fig 5. Arent de Gelder, SelfPortrait as Zeuxis, Who Portraysan Ugly Old Woman, 1685, oil oncanvas, Städel Museum,Frankfurt am Main, © Städel
Museum – U. Edelmann –ARTOTHEK

comparison because De Gelder dated few works from the 1690s and later.
His Self-Portrait as Zeuxis in Frankfurt (fig 5) displays certain similarities
to Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon with regard to paletteand brushwork, which suggests a date of around 1685–90.
-Volker Manuth© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. This reduction is evident by the lack of cusping on the left edge of the canvas. The painting
was originally signed. The signature survives on a separate strip of canvas (8 x 41 cm),
which must have been cut off when the canvas was cut. The current location of the strip withthe signature is unknown.
2. For the most recent discussion of the iconography of the painting, see Volker Manuth in P.
Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998),
180–81, no. 25 (ill.).
3. For the painting in the Rijksmuseum, see Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der RembrandtSchüler in vier Bänden, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–95), 2: no. 788 (ill.); Joachim W.
von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994), 28, 70, no. 21 (ill.)and in P. Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh.
cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998),
162–63, no. 18 (ill.). For the painting in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, see
Sumowski, 2:1164, no. 739 (ill.); Von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 , 36,72, no. 26 (ill.); and Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatsteleerling, 156–57, no. 16 (ill.).
4. Written communication (4 January 1995) from Peter Kidd to Otto Naumann Ltd., New York.
The association of Ahasuerus with the golden scepter stem from the account of Esther’smeeting with Ahasuerus: “And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in thecourt, that she obtained favor in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden scepterthat was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the scepter” (Esther 5:2).
5. When the restoration was carried out in Dordrecht in 1998, the physiognomy of the young
king in the painting in the Leiden Collection served as an example for the badly damaged
face of the figure in the Dordrecht painting. See P. Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder(1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum;
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998), 154.
6. “Krabt de gedaante van het borduursel, of de draden der franje daar uit met zyn
penceelstok, zonderende geene wyzen uit, als zy maar tot zyn oogmerk behulpig zyn; en ’t
ist e verwonderen hoe natuurlyk en kragtig zulk doen somwylen zig in affstantvertoont.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980), 3:207–8.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Provenance
Private collection, Portugal, and thence by descent.
Private collection, Boston [Lepore Fine Arts, Newburyport, Mass., 1993; Otto Naumann,Ltd., New York, 1993].
Mr. and Mrs. Bert van Deun, Oberageri, Switzerland, by 1997 [Otto Naumann, Ltd., NewYork, 2004].
From whom purchased by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste
leerling,” 10 October 1998–17 January 1999; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 17January–19 May 1999. Ghent, 1998, 188–89, no. 25 [lent by Bert van Deun].
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, January
2015–February 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau andPfalz, 1983–95, 6:3712, no. 2291a.
Manuth, Volker. “Een koning uit het Oude Testament.” In Arent de Gelder (1645–1727),
Rembrandts laatste leerling. Edited by Dirk Bijker, 180, no. 25. Exh. cat. Dordrecht,Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Ghent, 1998.

Technical Summary
The painting is a fragment of a larger composition. The support, a single piece of mediumweight, plain-weave fabric, has been reduced in size along the length of the left edge and has
been lined. The tacking margins have been removed, and there is cusping along the upper, right© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Old Testament Figure, Probably King Solomon
Page 7 of 8and lower edges. An inventory number handwritten in a radio-opaque medium is located in theupper right quadrant of the support reverse. There are no wax collection seals, stencils, paperlabels or import stamps along the lining or stretcher reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied in loose,
fluid brushstrokes of transparent glazes through the brown background, figure’s turban, browngarment, proper left sleeve, fur robe, and red drapery, which allow a light-colored underlayer toshow through, and more opaquely through the fleshtones. Dabs of highlights through theornamentation along the figure’s turban, in the jewel-encrusted band across his chest, and along
the scepter handle have been applied in low impasto. Details along the figure’s brown garment
have been scratched into glazes of wet paint with both a half-centimeter-wide tool and thepointed end of the back of a brush. The turban plume has been created entirely by scratching
into the wet paint of the brown background with the pointed end of the back of a brush andallowing the light underlayer to show through.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers, but
the images reveal a compositional change to the figure’s proper left hand. Originally, only the tipof the thumb peeked out from behind the index finger. Subsequently, the tip of the thumb wasshortened and the entire length of the thumb was added.
The painting is unsigned and undated. An 8 cm-high by 41 cm-wide fragment of the fabricremoved from the left edge bore the original signature.[1] A 1993 image shows the painting withan 8 cm-high fabric addition composed of two sections attached to the width of the upper edge.
The left section was the fragment bearing the signature. Sometime prior to 1995, both sectionsof the addition were removed and the fragment bearing the signature was retained and framed.[2]The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1993 prior to its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.[3]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden , 6 vols. (Landau,1983), 6:3712, no. 2291a, reproduced in color p. 3885.
2. Unfortunately, the framed signature fragment could not be located. Canvas weave
analysis of the signature fragment and painting support could provide information regarding
the original position of the signature and the painting’s original overall dimensions.
3. The painting was examined on-site with no stereomicroscope. Magnification provided by
5x Optivisor.

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