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A Dordrecht nobleman on horseback with retainers and grooms
Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634–1693)
Formerly attributed to: Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634–1693)
Formerly attributed to: Thomas de Keyser (Dutch, 1596/97–1667)
Formerly attributed to: Gabriel Metsu (Dutch, 1629–1667)
Formerly attributed to: Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634–1693)
Formerly attributed to: Thomas de Keyser (Dutch, 1596/97–1667)
Formerly attributed to: Gabriel Metsu (Dutch, 1629–1667)
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height x length: 71.8 x 95.3 cm (28 1/4 x 37 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild
Accession Number2019.652
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPanels
ProvenanceMarch 13, 1816, sale of the Jean-Antoine Verdier and Philibert Riviere collections, Laneuville, Paris, lot 52, withdrawn [see note 1]. Jean Baptiste Puthon (b. 1773 - d. 1839), Vienna; 1840, sold from the Puthon collection through Artaria and Co., Vienna [see note 2]. Samuel von Festetits (b. 1806 - d. about 1859), Vienna; April 11 and May 2, 1859, posthumous Festitits sale, Artaria, Vienna, lot 28, sold for 700 florins. By 1866, Friedrich Jacob Gsell (d. 1871), Vienna; March 14, 1872, posthumous Gsell sale, Georg Plach, Vienna, lot 66, sold for 30,600 florins to Plach for Anselm Solomon von Rothschild (b. 1803 - d. 1874); by descent to Nathaniel von Rothschild (b. 1836 - d. 1905), Vienna [see note 3]; by descent to his nephew, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (no. AR 857) [see note 4]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna, and selected for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 5]; 1941, removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster (K 972) and subsequently to Alt Aussee; July 13, 1945, shipped by Allied forces from Alt Aussee to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP no. 4071) [see note 6]; November 27, 1945 released from the MCCP to United States Forces in Austria [see note 7]; 1947, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 8]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2019, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2019)
NOTES:
[1] As Gabriel Metsu, A Prince of the House of Orange. Getty Provenance Index online, sale catalogue F-633.
[2] As A Prince of Nassau-Orange by Gabriel Metzu [sic]. See Theodor von Frimmel, "Zur Geschichte der Puthon'sche Gemälde-Sammlung," Blätter für Gemäldekunde VII (1912), pp. 22-23.
[3] Nathaniel Rothschild, Notizien über einige meiner Kunstgegenstände (Vienna, 1903), p. 31, cat. no. 57 (as Metsu, Prinz Wilhelm von Oranien zu Pferd mit seiner Suite); and Inventar über die in Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'schen Nachlass gehörigen, in dem Palais in Wien, IV. Bezirk Theresianumgasse Nr. 14 befindlichen Kunstgegenstände und Einrichtungsstücke (Vienna, 1906), p. 378, no. 41 (as Thomas De Keyser, Wilhelm von Oranien zu Pferd).
[4] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This painting appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 857: "Jan Jorris Metsu, Prinz von Oranien, Leinwand, 72 x 95." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1031.
[5] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection. This painting was included in an inventory of the museum drawn up on July 31, 1940. CIR no. 4, attachment 73.
[6] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (no. 2808) and was numbered 4071, which is recorded on the reverse of the painting stretcher and frame. The Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card is held by the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (Property Card 4071; National Archives Record Group 260) and the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany (B323/655).
[7] The painting once again passed through Kremsmünster (inventoried there December 19, 1946 by the MFA&A, list 321, no. 6) before its return to Clarice de Rothschild.
[8] Birgit Schwartz, Hitlers Museum: Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz. Dokumente zum "Führermuseum" (Vienna: Böhlau, 2004), p. 108, III/26.
NOTES:
[1] As Gabriel Metsu, A Prince of the House of Orange. Getty Provenance Index online, sale catalogue F-633.
[2] As A Prince of Nassau-Orange by Gabriel Metzu [sic]. See Theodor von Frimmel, "Zur Geschichte der Puthon'sche Gemälde-Sammlung," Blätter für Gemäldekunde VII (1912), pp. 22-23.
[3] Nathaniel Rothschild, Notizien über einige meiner Kunstgegenstände (Vienna, 1903), p. 31, cat. no. 57 (as Metsu, Prinz Wilhelm von Oranien zu Pferd mit seiner Suite); and Inventar über die in Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'schen Nachlass gehörigen, in dem Palais in Wien, IV. Bezirk Theresianumgasse Nr. 14 befindlichen Kunstgegenstände und Einrichtungsstücke (Vienna, 1906), p. 378, no. 41 (as Thomas De Keyser, Wilhelm von Oranien zu Pferd).
[4] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This painting appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 857: "Jan Jorris Metsu, Prinz von Oranien, Leinwand, 72 x 95." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1031.
[5] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection. This painting was included in an inventory of the museum drawn up on July 31, 1940. CIR no. 4, attachment 73.
[6] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (no. 2808) and was numbered 4071, which is recorded on the reverse of the painting stretcher and frame. The Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card is held by the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (Property Card 4071; National Archives Record Group 260) and the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany (B323/655).
[7] The painting once again passed through Kremsmünster (inventoried there December 19, 1946 by the MFA&A, list 321, no. 6) before its return to Clarice de Rothschild.
[8] Birgit Schwartz, Hitlers Museum: Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz. Dokumente zum "Führermuseum" (Vienna: Böhlau, 2004), p. 108, III/26.