Victors, Jan (attr.)

Description:

Amsterdam 1619 - Ost-Indien 1676
160 x 220 cm
The Reconciliation of Esau and Jacob. Oil/canvas. C. 1640/45.
Southern German private collection. Cf. Lit.: Werner Sumowski, Die Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau 1989, vol. IV, p. 2590 et seqq.
The Amsterdam painter and Rembrandt student Jan Victors also thematised the fraternal strife, betrayal, deceit, forgiveness and reconciliation, a central theme of the Old Testament, on the canvas at least twice, in different versions.
The large format painting presented here shows the touching scene of Esau's reconciliation with Jacob in a foreground scenery. The viewer's space and the "stage space" merge into one another, the boundary between inside and outside wants to be dissolved, the landscape with a strip of sky, mountain ranges, the foliage of a tree that has just been cut is mere scenery. Werner Sumowski speaks of the painter's compositional style in the early 1640s as "dramatic close-up" (Sumowski, vol. IV, p.2590).
The other version is in Indianapolis, Museum of Art (inv. no. 79.330), and shows Jacob next to his family, wives and children, kneeling and in humble expectation of his approaching brother (Sumowski, vol.IV, p.2653, No.1754).
The painting is dated 1652, about ten years later as the present painting. The "drastic" aspect of the close-up view has been significantly reduced, local color, light and shadow used in a much more subtle way - but the Jacob figures in both paintings are striking similar in posture, gesture, hair and beard treatment, design of the clothing right down to the shoes, the fine leather boots, the velvet skirt with a wide sash. Here the painter brought his Jacob figure back to life, possibly a studio sketch was the basis for the revival of this successful figure.
Jan Victors was a prolific artist. His oeuvre consisted primarily of themes from the Old Testament and genre scenes. The large number of Old Testament scenes may also be connected with the wealthy Jewish merchant society in Amsterdam, whose art collectors commissioned special themes and subjects.
After his (presumed) apprenticeship with Rembrandt in the late 1930s, Victors set up his own business around 1640. His creative period is assumed to be until 1670, in December 1679 Jan Victors died in the Dutch East Indies.