By Kaemmerer, Frederik Hendrik (Dutch, 1839-1902)
Portraying a charming family scene from the Directoire era, this Dutch painting was once part of the collection of John Jacob Astor III.
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This sumptuous artwork was painted in Paris around 1878 by the Dutch artist Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer. Born in 1839, Kaemmerer was a follower of the Romantic style, but later gravitated towards Academic and Impressionist genres.
This fine painting, depicting a christening scene, immerses the viewer in the era of the Directoire, a period that arose in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Kaemmerer skilfully pairs the birth of a new political age with the arrival of a new life, drawing a poignant parallel between personal and societal rebirth. This would have been especially relevant in the 1870s at the dawn of the Third French Republic.
The painting depicts an affluent family descending a stone stairway draped in a richly woven rug. Their pastel-toned clothes are rendered in intricate detail, with satin and lace providing immaculate depth. A central female figure carries a newborn baby, and to the far right a girl offers money to a crowd of young boys.
Shortly after this painting’s creation, it was acquired by the American financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III (1822-1890), a keen collector who was instrumental in the funding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The painting is signed ‘F.H. Kaemmerer’ in the lower right and the giltwood frame is adorned with a plaque which reads ‘The Christening / Frederick H. Kaemmerer’.
- With Goupil & Co., Paris, 1878
- With M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 8 November 1878
- From whom acquired by John Jacob Astor III, 25 November 1878
- Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 2 November 1995, lot 146
- Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 3 December 2003, lot 7
Exhibited:
- Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum and Paris, Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, The Dutch in Paris 1789–1914, 13 October 2017 – 7 January 2018 and 6 February – 13 May 2018, no. 119 (as Un baptême sous le directoire).
- G. Norman (ed.), Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century, Woodbridge 1973, p. 149
- M. Jonkman (ed.), The Dutch in Paris 1789–1914, exh. cat., Bussum 2017, p. 134, no. 119
Reference:
17982
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