Provenance: Mrs Andrée Vuitton Collection
In this exquisitely elegant tondo, Abel Grimmer exhibits all his talent as a colourist and landscape painter for the benefit of a painting that pays...
read moreProvenance: Mrs Andrée Vuitton Collection
In this exquisitely elegant tondo, Abel Grimmer exhibits all his talent as a colourist and landscape painter for the benefit of a painting that pays homage to the pleasures of life. This lovely afternoon allows the artist to portray the charms of a countryside far from the wars that were ravaging the country. The formal feudal castle turned aristocratic residence provides the ideal setting for the men and women of fashion indulging in the pleasures of summer. Soaring towers, green banks and a pleasantly enclosed orchard provide the scene with the prefect décor for this ‘ideal’ life, similar to that of Arcadia, the model society imagined by such thinkers of the time as Thomas More or Erasmus. Elegantly dressed couples enjoy the sun to the sound of a mandolin. While some dance, others prefer to sample the wine. A tablecloth is spread out on the grass, on which a frugal lunch has just been served. The happy band will soon be joined by a couple that is still posted on the bridge. On the calm waters of the moat, some are playing about in a boat. Abel Grimmer captures this warm moment with great attention to detail. The clear colours of the landscape, as well as the sustained touches of the clothes, emphasise the great quality of this small painting. According to the tradition of Flemish courtly painting at the end of the 16th century, the iconography of this painting refers to the Five Senses. The characters’ activities evoke sight, hearing, smell and of course taste and touch. Originating from the portrayal of the enclosed garden (hortus conclusus) which features in the theme of the Garden of Love in the 15th century, our depiction is courtly and not in the least bit saucy. Here, leisure is portrayed as noble and perfectly decent. This portrayal of courtly society marks a distinction between rural scenes, in which peasant festivities display bonhomie and rusticity. Abel Grimmer thus participates in the development of outdoor romantic scenes just like numerous other Flemish and Dutch painters, such as David Vinckboons, Dirk Hals and Adam van Breen. The influence of this type of idealised scene is felt right up until Watteau, who perpetuated scenes of courtly life in an idyllic setting until the 18th century.
Circa 1570 - Antwerp - 1618
Abel Grimmer, a painter from Antwerp, was the son of the landscape-painter Jacob Grimmer, with whom he carried out an apprenticeship before acceptance as a Master of...
read moreCirca 1570 - Antwerp - 1618
Abel Grimmer, a painter from Antwerp, was the son of the landscape-painter Jacob Grimmer, with whom he carried out an apprenticeship before acceptance as a Master of the Guild of the Painters of Saint Luke in 1592.
He was the specialist of series devoted to the Four Seasons and Twelve Months, which resemble panel transpositions of miniaturist calendars.
He was a contemporary of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and, like him, though in a highly personal fashion, interpreted certain engravings and models designed by Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Hans Bol. He thus remained deeply attached to the spirit and rather archaic conception of the XVI century.
He is characterized by strict, precise graphics, a synthetic vision of nature following in the foot-path of the primitives and miniature painters, a composition with schematic lines, and great subtility in the choice and juxtaposition of the tones.
If we hardly knew the extent of his work, it may be said of him that he “simplified nature with a charming, poetic naivity, together with a great mastery of workmanship”. His pictorial style, which combines a highly personal realism of the landscape with a stylisation of nature and architectures, today appears strangely modern to us.
