Jan de Bray (Dutch, 1627-1697)

A pair of portraits depicting the artist’s parents, the artist Salomon de Bray (1597-1664), aged 67, and Anna Westerbaen (1605-1663), aged 59
the portrait of the artist's father inscribed, dated and signed lower left 'Aetatis sua 67. / 1663. / JBray P.'
the portrait of his mother inscribed, dated and signed lower right 'Aetatis sua 59. / 1663 / JBray P.'
oil on panel
each 41 x 30cm

Provenance:
By descent within the family of the present owner since at least the 19th century

This intimate and compelling pair of portraits represent both a significant addition to the oeuvre of Jan de Bray and the iconography of his father, the influential painter Salomon de Bray, who taught and inspired him. Jan’s mother, Anna Westerbaen, was the sister of the poet and physician Jacob Westerbaen (c. 1600–1670) and of the portrait painter Jan Westerbaen (c. 1600–after 1677) who also possibly instructed Jan de Bray in the art of portraiture.

Hitherto unrecorded, these extremely well-preserved panels have been in family of the present vendor for well over a century. It is only now that the identities of the sitters have been definitively confirmed as the artist’s parents, with their ages inscribed to each painting corresponding exactly with their recorded ages in 1663, the date of execution.

The sensitive portrayal of both sitters is given added poignancy due to their death in a plague that ravaged Haarlem, where Jan de Bray was born and worked, claiming his mother in 1663 and his father a year later, along with four of his siblings.

Given Anna Westerbaen is recorded as having been buried on 3^rd March 1663, it is likely that the present paintings were executed by Jan de Bray as a posthumous tribute to his mother. Indeed, his striking double profile portrait of his parents (National Gallery of Art, Washington, no. 2001.86.1), dating to 1664, was also painted in memoriam, commemorating both Anna and Salomon de Bray, the latter buried little over a year after his wife on 14^th May 1664.

Both the Washington painting and the present portrayal of Salomon show him with his left hand outstretched, as if he were about to speak. This sense of suspended animation is reminiscent of Frans Hals, also active in Haarlem, who undoubtedly influenced Jan. The pose is also a rhetorical one and, together with his scholarly attire (in both he wears a skullcap, dark mantle and simple white collar), highlights Salomon’s intellectual prowess; he was also an architect (like Jan), poet and a member of De Wijngaertranken (Chamber of rhetoric).

Salomon de Bray’s likeness here is additionally corroborated by a woodcut of 1664 produced by Dirck de Bray, Jan’s brother and only other family member to survive the plague. Though the print depicts Salomon head and shoulders and in reverse to the present portrait, counterproofs (see British no. 1995,U.11) indicate that the woodcut derived from an image in the same orientation and the closeness in pose, facial features and attire are indicative of this painting being its prototype.

Jan de Bray depicted his parents posthumously again as models for his history painting, The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra (Currier Museum of Art, 1969.8), also featuring the artist, his siblings and wife, a repeat of an earlier version of 1652 (Royal Collection). The extended replica of 1669 was most probably inspired by the death of Jan’s wife a year earlier, again highlighting his close attachment and commitment to the remembrance of his family. In this context, the present pair of portraits would likewise have held great significance for the painter Houbraken called the “pearl in Haarlem's crown”, even more so given their date of execution and smaller, more personal nature.

Condition Report

Both paintings are executed in oil on wooden panel supports. The panels are each formed from a single board with a vertical woodgrain. Bevelled edges are present on the reverse but the panels may have been thinned in the past with regular, even saw marks present. The paint layers on both pictures are in a good stable condition. In the portrait of the artist’s mother, the paint is slightly raised following the vertical woodgrain. There is also evidence of slight pentimenti in this picture, around the proper left sleeve. There are small areas of retouching present, mainly in the backgrounds. The varnish is dull and degraded with streaks in the surface. The varnish is no longer adequately saturating the darker paint layers below.