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Actaeon Watching Diana and Her Nymphs Bathing
Joachim Anthoniesz. Wtewael (Dutch, 1566–1638)
1612
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
56.5 x 75.9 cm (22 1/4 x 29 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Abbott Lawrence Fund
Accession Number57.119
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Diana was the goddess of the hunt and guardian of chastity. For spying on her as she and her nymphs bathed, Actaeon was turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds. Wtewael's contemporaries interpreted the story allegorically as an admonition against the weakness of the flesh. Although a later work by the artist, this painting still retains the refined artificiality of pose and palette favored by the Mannerists.
InscriptionsLower right, on bridge: Jo Wte Wael fecit An 1612 [J and o in monogram)
ProvenanceBy 1637, Jan Arentsz. van Naerden, Amsterdam [see note 1]. Jacob Alweijn (b 1714 - d. 1761) and Margaretha Helena Graafland Alewijn (b. 1720 - d. 1766), Amsterdam; June 10, 1767, posthumous widow Alewijn sale, Amsterdam, lot 18, to Pierre Fouquet, Amsterdam. 1806, Charles Joseph François Spruyt (b. 1769 - d. 1851), Amsterdam; July 28, 1806, Spruyt sale, Fernand, Ghent, Belgium, lot 162, to Penneman. By 1929, Curt Glaser (b. 1879 - d. 1943), Berlin [see note 2]; May 9, 1933, Glaser sale, Internationales Kunst- und Auktionshaus, Berlin, lot 243, sold for M 550. J. H. Borghouts Gallery, Venlo and Utrecht, The Netherlands [see note 3]. Malmedé Gallery, Cologne; by 1956, sold by Malmedé to Jon Nicholas Streep, New York [see note 4]; 1957, sold by Streep to the MFA for $3,500. (Accession Date: February 14, 1957)
NOTES:
[1] The painting was included in the appraisal of the collection of Jan Arentsz. van Naerden by Lucas Luce and Hendrick Ulenborch, Amsterdam, December 11, 1637, no. 3. [2] The painting was first published by C.M.A.A. Lindeman, Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael (Utrecht, 1929), p. 249, no. X, as in Curt Glaser's collection. [3] According to information on file at the RKD, the Hague (ONS/Groep 518/Wtewael/doos 5/map 3). [4] According to a letter from the dealer Streep to the MFA (February 20, 1957) in the MFA curatorial file.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Scholar and art collector Curt Glaser was director of the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek in Berlin until 1933, when he was discharged according to the Nazi Laws for the Reestablishment of Civil Service (passed April 7, 1933), which forbade Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions. He sold much of his art collection in two sales in Berlin in May, 1933. The heirs of Curt Glaser have sought restitution of the works of art auctioned in 1933, alleging that the sales were due to Nazi persecution and therefore forced. Research has shown, however, that Glaser's decision to sell much of his collection that spring was due to a number of factors, in particular the recent death of his first wife, with whom he had built the collection. He attested in personal letters that he sought to start over, and with his new wife Maria he emigrated from Germany that summer with crates of modern paintings and a selection of works on paper that he had chosen not to auction. The price attained for the Wtewael was fair and consistent with those for other Dutch Mannerist paintings at the time.
The Glasers lived for several years in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States in 1941. Curt Glaser died in 1943 in Lake Placid, New York.
NOTES:
[1] The painting was included in the appraisal of the collection of Jan Arentsz. van Naerden by Lucas Luce and Hendrick Ulenborch, Amsterdam, December 11, 1637, no. 3. [2] The painting was first published by C.M.A.A. Lindeman, Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael (Utrecht, 1929), p. 249, no. X, as in Curt Glaser's collection. [3] According to information on file at the RKD, the Hague (ONS/Groep 518/Wtewael/doos 5/map 3). [4] According to a letter from the dealer Streep to the MFA (February 20, 1957) in the MFA curatorial file.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Scholar and art collector Curt Glaser was director of the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek in Berlin until 1933, when he was discharged according to the Nazi Laws for the Reestablishment of Civil Service (passed April 7, 1933), which forbade Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions. He sold much of his art collection in two sales in Berlin in May, 1933. The heirs of Curt Glaser have sought restitution of the works of art auctioned in 1933, alleging that the sales were due to Nazi persecution and therefore forced. Research has shown, however, that Glaser's decision to sell much of his collection that spring was due to a number of factors, in particular the recent death of his first wife, with whom he had built the collection. He attested in personal letters that he sought to start over, and with his new wife Maria he emigrated from Germany that summer with crates of modern paintings and a selection of works on paper that he had chosen not to auction. The price attained for the Wtewael was fair and consistent with those for other Dutch Mannerist paintings at the time.
The Glasers lived for several years in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States in 1941. Curt Glaser died in 1943 in Lake Placid, New York.