There is more to this painting than meets the eye.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Nivaagaards Malerisamling
There is more to this painting than meets the eye.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
After years of research and detective work, a family is reunited. However, this is not your average story.
The backstory
In 1626, a father and son sit for a portrait. The father reclines in an armchair with a flamboyant mustache and goatee with a large millstone collar around his neck – a spine-tingling accessory worn by many in the early 17th century. Her son posed beside her with rosy cheeks, wearing children’s fashion for the day.
This particular painting, titled “Double Portrait of a Father and Son,” is a vision of wealth. Not just because of the expensive clothes the father and son are wearing, but because of WHO painted their portrait – Cornelis De Vos.
“He was highly sought after, so if you could get him to portray your family, then you were a rich and influential family,” said Angela Jager, who curates old master paintings at the RKD-Netherlands Institute. for Art History.
There is a loving and tender dynamic that comes through in the portrait.
“The father and the son holding hands so tenderly, it’s like a unity in itself. You could easily think it’s a finished painting if you don’t have a very careful eye,” Jager said.
The researcher
Jørgen Wadum is a consultant to the Nivaagaard Collection in Denmark and an independent researcher. Part of his job as an art conservator is to unframe paintings and inspect them from front to back and around the edges.
Wadum and Jager work together to study Dutch and Flemish old master paintings in the Nivaagaard Collection. Upon seeing De Vos’ father and son painting, both Jager and Wadum noticed something in the lower right corner of the painting.
“There were two knees covered by a black striped dress,” Wadum said. “We immediately saw that there was a story here that we didn’t know much about.”
It is obvious that someone is missing sitting next to the father and son. This sets the pair into action to find out who it is.
The clues
Their first clue will come from photos showing the artwork in a pristine and restored condition. It was further revealed in the photo that there is a hand in the lower corner that appears to be a woman’s hand.
A slender finger with ornate rings suggests that there is more to see.
Camilla Perondi/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Camilla Perondi/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
“This is actually a very stylish woman sitting here with skinny fingers, a pair of rings on her fingers,” Wadum said. “He had beautifully embroidered gloves on his hand with a red lining.”
This led Wadum to begin searching De Vos’s repertoire for portraits of seated women – without the right hand, of course. It’s a Google search that leads Wadum and Jager to finally find their missing girl.
They stumbled upon a picture of a woman sitting in the background with a garden to one side and some trees that “matches perfectly with the painting we have here, even the background – the sky and the veil of white clouds match perfectly,” Wadum said.
The mysterious woman was discovered.
Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Nivaagaards Malerisamling
Not only did they find their missing girl, her photo was actually for sale. “So it opened up an opportunity for the museum to buy him and reunite the family. So that was a wonderful day,” Jager said.
The last mystery
The original painting was done in 1626. Jager thinks the picture was probably cut in the first half of the 19th century.
As for why the painting was split, Jager said the original may have been damaged by water or fire.
“This may also explain why we only have the woman’s face and not her body,” Wadum said.
The paintings now hang side by side in the Nivaagaard Collection, the family reunited after nearly two centuries apart.
The family is together again.
Jørgen Wadum/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
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Jørgen Wadum/Nivaagaards Malerisamling
The next stage in Wadum and Jager’s research was the search WHO the family in the painting is. And they are also working on another reunification for next year.
“So that’s a cliffhanger here and in spring next year, we will bring it [paintings] together again [that] haven’t been together since 1801,” Wadum said.
And Wadum poses another question to conclude: how many paintings do we see in museums that look complete but are actually incomplete?
