© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Alchemist
Page 2 of 8Alchemist
Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

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

How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Alchemist” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara
Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Originating in ancient philosophy, alchemy in early modern Europe was considered aComparative Figures

pseudoscience of transmutation, in which a base metal (for example, lead) was to betransformed into a noble metal, such as gold or silver. Reflecting contemporary
perception of the mystic as well as the scientific nature of this tradition, two rather
contradictory ways of portraying the alchemist exist in the visual tradition of thenorthern and southern Netherlands. One depicts the alchemist as a charlatan in searchof the magical ability to create gold, and the other depicts him as a scientific scholar,
laying the foundation for the early development of modern chemistry.[1]The first approach, employed throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
characterized the alchemist as the object of satire and a symbol of human folly. His
futile experiments in changing base metals into gold were represented as sinful quests

Fig 1. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder(ca. 1525–69), possibly workshop orimmediate surroundings 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-100

for personal gain. In this view of alchemy, alchemists inevitably ended up wasting
precious time and money, thereby sacrificing the welfare of their families.(fig 1)
Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s (ca. 1525–69) drawing Alchemist, ca. 1658, depicting thealchemist as a profligate, served as an important source of inspiration for latergenerations of artists, including David III Rijckaert (1612–61), Jan Steen (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 hissurroundings, especially that of his own family. His young wife holds their infant in
her arms and casts a discouraged glance up at an empty moneybag hanging from theceiling (fig 2).[3]David Teniers the Younger (1610–90) introduced the second common portrayal of
the alchemist in the 1640s, and his example was followed by, among others, ThomasWijck (1616–77), Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81), and Cornelis Bega(1631–64).[4] Despite the often skeptical view of the profession, alchemy was, in fact,

Fig 2. Jan Steen, The Village
Alchemist, early 1660s, oil on panel,
41.7 x 29.8 cm (16 2/5 x 11 3/4 in.),
The Wallace Collection, London

a precursor to modern chemistry and pharmacology. In the course of theirexperiments, alchemists developed chemical processes like distillation anddissolution, and increased the knowledge of the physical world, which was of greatpractical use in, for instance, the chemistry of medicine, which distilled herbs tomake elixirs.[5] In Teniers’s Alchemist in the Mauritshuis, the alchemist is portrayed asa wise and humble scientist diligently absorbed in his research and surrounded by avariety of instruments, such as distillation equipment (fig 3).[6] Teniers’s alchemists
are often accompanied by one or two assistants who take charge of the execution of
the experiment. His laboratories do not include motifs that suggest the self-deception

Fig 3. David Teniers theYounger, Alchemist, ca. 1650, oil onpanel, 26.6 x 37 cm., Mauritshuis, TheHague, no. 261

and resultant misery often associated with alchemy, such as empty moneybags orweeping families.
Jacob Toorenvliet’s interest in the alchemist as a scientist developed over many years.
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In the late 1660s, undoubtedly when he was living in Vienna, Toorenvliet first painted
an image of a scholarly alchemist devoted to his experiment; he then repeated thesubject in 1679 after he had returned briefly to his native Leiden (fig 4).[7] In thelatter picture the alchemist is depicted as an intellectual deeply engrossed in hisexperiment, evinced by the books and notes on the table.[8] The depiction of analchemist as a master instructing his assistant is first seen in Toorenvliet’s Alchemistand His 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 placedclose to each other and against a shaded background, are comparable to works thatthe artist made during his Viennese period.
The inspiration for Toorenvliet’s positive depictions of alchemists was undoubtedly

Fig 4. Jacob Toorenvliet, An
Alchemist, 1679, oil on copper, 22 x 17cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, NM661

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’spictures, there is no allusion to misery or deception in Toorenvliet’s paintings ofalchemists.[10] In the Leiden Collection painting, Toorenvliet’s alchemist has one handon the crumpled pages of a manuscript resting on a work table filled with vessels anda wooden bellows. He interacts easily with his assistant, who has come to show him apiece of metal he has been heating in the fire partially visible behind them. It is a
moment of intellectual exchange, where the two men respond to the results of theexperiment they are conducting. With a surety of touch and command of his subject,
Toorenvliet creates an engaging scenario, where the men’s active gesture and countergesture reflect the excitement of the moment and the expectation of discovery.

- Junko Aono, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Alchemist
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Görel Cavalli-Björkman, Dutch and Flemish Paintings II. Dutch Paintings c. 1600–c. 1800, (Stockholm,2005), 457; Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science? (Exh. cat. Greenwich, Conn.,
Bruce Museum) (Greenwich, 2009), 3, 11–16.
2. For Brueghel’s drawing and Philip Galle’s print after it, see Friedrich Wilhelm Hollstein, Dutch andFlemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700 (Amsterdam, 1949–2010), 3: 296; Nadine
M. Orenstein, Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints (Exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan Museumof Art; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen) (New York, 2001), 170–73, no. 61; cf. Matthias
Winner, “Zu Bruegels ‘Alchimist,’” in Pieter Bruegel und Seine 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 Flemish Painter 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 United States(photograph at the RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for ArtHistory), artwork no. 120536).
3. The moneybag is joined by a bloated bladder, which was considered a variation of the theme of blowing
bubbles, symbolizing transience and vanity of life. For this motif, see Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering envermaak: betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen in de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 117–18. The two figures behind the alchemist could be common
theatrical stooges, namely the hunchback and the boor, emphasizing the folly of the alchemist’s quest.
John Ingamells, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures: IV 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 SchoneKunsten) (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
van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder (Doornspijk, 1981), 15, no. 11; and Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann,and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 85–87, no. 6. Bega seems tohave put more emphasis on the representation of still life motifs; see Peter van den Brink, and Bernd
Wolfgang Lindeman, Cornelis Bega: Eleganz und raue Sitten (Exh. cat. Aachen, Suermondt-LudwigMuseum; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (Aachen, 2012), nos. 69, 70. ThomasWijck made a series of paintings in which the alchemist’s family sometimes appears but is not
impoverished: The Alchemist, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. SK489) and The Alchemist, The State
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
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5. See, for example, the sixteenth-century alchemist Paracelsus, who was the founder of modern
pharmacology: Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science? (Exh. cat. Greenwich, Conn.,
Bruce Museum) (Greenwich, 2009), 15–16.
6. Quentin Buvelot, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis: A Summary Catalogue (Zwolle, 2004), 302–3, no.
261.
7. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD
diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A 94, 102; and Görel Cavalli-Björkman, Dutch and FlemishPaintings, vol. 2, Dutch Paintings c. 1600–ca. 1800 (Stockholm, 2005), 475, no. NM661. Toorenvliet
made another alchemist in 1676, see Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers
Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD 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 oflearning, such as a Jewish scholar or an old man holding a book. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben undWerk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), nos.
A91, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 103–4, 105.
9. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD
diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), no. B26. This picture was probably inspired by An Alchemist and HisAssistant in a Workshop (ca. 1655) by Frans van Mieris the Elder, alongside whom Toorenvliet
apprenticed with his father, Abraham Toorenvliet. See Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy deJongh, Frans van Mieris 1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (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 those worn by thealchemist 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.

Exhibition History© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum, “Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science?” 26 September 2009–3 January2010 [no number, lent by the present owner].
Williamstown, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, “An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 5 March–17 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, “An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Genre Painting,” 17 April–25 July 2021, no. 10 [lent by the present owner].

ReferencesFrimmel, 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.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Embracing an Inner World in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting.” In
An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara
Yeager-Crasselt, 25, no. 10. Exh. cat. Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia, 2021.
Jorink, Eric. “An Eye for Detail: Art, Science, and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Leiden.” In An
Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara YeagerCrasselt, 57–58. Exh. cat. Philadelphia, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia,
2021.

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

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 are three brown oxidation
products, two inscriptions, and a light-colored wax dot, but no wax collection seals, stencils, labels or maker’s© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Alchemist
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A dark ground or underlayer has a gritty, sandy texture with pin-sized raised dots. The paint has been appliedsmoothly with glazes wet-into-wet through the flesh tones with no areas of impasto or low roundedbrushwork. Fine brushstrokes define the figure’s hair, beard, and fur collar of his jacket. The paint has
flaked off the tops of the pin-sized raised dots and a fine network of craquelure has formed along most of
the composition. Together with the panel’s hammered surface, the raised dots and craquelure give thepainting 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 the reverse.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. Compositionalchanges visible in the images and as pentimenti include shifts in the position of the 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 the horizontally 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 waspainted.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2009 and remains in a good state of preservation.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection