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Woman Seated at a Table (Vanitas)
Hendrick Gerritsz. Pot (Dutch, about 1580–1657)
1635–40
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
48.9 x 49.2 cm (19 1/4 x 19 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Antonie Lilienfeld in memory of Dr. Leon Lilienfeld
Accession Number48.1165
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Long attributed to Gerrit Dou, this painting is the work of Hendrick Pot, a Haarlem painter best known for his guardroom scenes, elegant companies, and small-scale portraits. The sheet posted on the back wall—the key to the painting's meaning—is inscribed "vanitas." Vanitas paintings suggest the fragility of life and the inevitability of death through their painted details. Here, a skull, instruments (referencing the transitory strains of music), gold and jewelry (transitory earthly goods), games, books (emblems of scholarship), and symbols of time (hourglass, extinguished candle) surround a woman who reminds the viewer to meditate on death.
ProvenanceTheodor Christomannos (b. 1854 - d. 1911), Meran (present-day Italy); November 24-27, 1913, Christomannos estate sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, lot 636. By 1917, Dr. Leon Lilienfeld (b. 1869 - d. 1938), Vienna [see note 1]; 1938, by inheritance to his widow, Antonie Schulz Lilienfeld (b. 1876 - d. 1972), Vienna and Gstaad, Switzerland, but prevented from export and remained in the custody of Emmerich Hunna (b. 1889 - d. 1964), Vienna [see note 2]; 1941, pawned by Hunna to the Dorotheum, Vienna [see note 3]; May 19, 1944, removed from the Dorotheum and shipped to Alt Aussee, Austria [see note 4]; 1948, returned to Antonie Lilienfeld, Winchester, MA; 1948, gift of Mrs. Lilienfeld to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 14, 1948)
NOTES:
[1] Gustav Glück, Niederländische Gemälde aus der Sammlung des Herrn. Dr. L. Lilienfeld in Wien (Vienna, 1917), p. 62, cat. no. 15, attributed to Gerard Dou and titled "Vanitas."
[2] Just after the Anschluss, or the incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938, the Lilienfelds fled for Italy. Dr. Lilienfeld died of natural causes there, and his wife continued on to Switzerland before immigrating to the United States. Mrs. Lilienfeld sought to export their art collection in 1938, but eight paintings, including the Pot, were prevented from leaving Austria. They remained in the custody of attorney Emmerich Hunna. See Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna: Czernin, 2003), pp. 683, 696-697; and Victoria S. Reed, "Frans Hals, Hitler, and the Lilienfeld Collection," Journal of the History of Collections (2018) [doi: 10/1093/jhc/fhx035].
[3] In order to protect them, Hunna pawned this work and the Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals (MFA accession no. 66.1054), to the Dorotheum auction house for 15,000 RM.
[4] In 1944, the paintings were removed to the abandoned salt mines in Alt Aussee by the Austrian Monuments Protection Agency (Institut für Denkmalpflege), where they--along with other works stored by the Nazis--would be safe from wartime bombing.
[5] Allied forces located the painting in the Alt Aussee mines in 1945. It remained there for several years as Mrs. Lilienfeld's attorneys sought to repay the debts to the Dorotheum, apply for export authorization, and settle other administrative matters. The paintings by Hals and Pot (still attributed to Dou) were released and shipped to Mrs. Lilienfeld at the MFA in 1948.
NOTES:
[1] Gustav Glück, Niederländische Gemälde aus der Sammlung des Herrn. Dr. L. Lilienfeld in Wien (Vienna, 1917), p. 62, cat. no. 15, attributed to Gerard Dou and titled "Vanitas."
[2] Just after the Anschluss, or the incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938, the Lilienfelds fled for Italy. Dr. Lilienfeld died of natural causes there, and his wife continued on to Switzerland before immigrating to the United States. Mrs. Lilienfeld sought to export their art collection in 1938, but eight paintings, including the Pot, were prevented from leaving Austria. They remained in the custody of attorney Emmerich Hunna. See Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna: Czernin, 2003), pp. 683, 696-697; and Victoria S. Reed, "Frans Hals, Hitler, and the Lilienfeld Collection," Journal of the History of Collections (2018) [doi: 10/1093/jhc/fhx035].
[3] In order to protect them, Hunna pawned this work and the Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals (MFA accession no. 66.1054), to the Dorotheum auction house for 15,000 RM.
[4] In 1944, the paintings were removed to the abandoned salt mines in Alt Aussee by the Austrian Monuments Protection Agency (Institut für Denkmalpflege), where they--along with other works stored by the Nazis--would be safe from wartime bombing.
[5] Allied forces located the painting in the Alt Aussee mines in 1945. It remained there for several years as Mrs. Lilienfeld's attorneys sought to repay the debts to the Dorotheum, apply for export authorization, and settle other administrative matters. The paintings by Hals and Pot (still attributed to Dou) were released and shipped to Mrs. Lilienfeld at the MFA in 1948.