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| Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1642)
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| The Meeting of Joseph and Jacob
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Signed on the shield lower right: Do FFRANCK.IN.Et f.
Oil on panel
36 ½ x 48 ½ in. (92 x 123 cm.)
With inscription on the reverse: A // No 2 69 PSL
Provenance: Mary Charlotte Hunter; Christie’s, London, 29 April 1949, lot 27, ‘The Meeting of Jacob and Esau’, where purchased for 35 gns. by Legatt; Dr. E. I. Schapiro, London, 1953; Christie’s, London, 30 March 1979, lot 15; With Robert Noortman Galleries, London, 1979; Private Collection
Literature: K. J. Müllenmeister, Meer und Land im Licht des 17. Jahrhunderts, Tierdarstellungen, Bremen, 1981, vol. 3, p. 117, no. 599, where mistakenly identified as ‘The Meeting of Jacob and Laban’; U. Härting, Studien zur Kabinettbildmalerei des Frans Francken, Hildesheim, 1983, cat. no. 9, col. plate IV and cover illustration; U. Härting, Frans Francken, d.J. - Die Gemälde, Freren, 1989, cat. no. 9, p. 229, col. plate 33; K. Borms & U. Härting, Abraham Govaerts - der Waldmaler (1589-1626), Schoten, 2004, cat. no. 104, col. plate p.136
This magnificent painting of The Meeting of Joseph and Jacob is a masterpiece by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642) executed in collaboration with the landscape painter Abraham Govaerts (1589-1626) and the figure painter Hans Jordaens III (c. 1595-1643), all three of whom lived in Antwerp during the time of Rubens. Francken was responsible for painting the main figures in the foreground, while Govaerts, who specialized in wooded landscapes, created the scenic backdrop and Jordaens, best known for his compositions in the manner of Francken the Younger, added the long procession of Israelites with their animals and carriages on the left of the picture. The overall composition would have been decided by Francken, whose signature alone appears on the painting.
The episode shown in our picture is taken from the Book of Genesis and shows the moment when Jacob (or Israel) is reunited in the land of Goshen with his long-lost son, Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his brothers and whom he had given up for dead: ‘And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.’ In the middle of the foreground are the figures of Jacob, on the left, and Joseph, on the right, wearing his ‘coat of many colours.’ The Israelites are shown arriving from the left, while Joseph’s entourage gathers on the right. Earlier Joseph had sent a carriage from Egypt to Canaan to collect his father with all his descendants (66 in total), who arrived with their wives, children, grandchildren and flocks. Characteristic of Hans Jordaens is the painting of the cows in the background with their bony hips and the lively horses in harness. Camels and women dressed with the wide-brimmed hats associated in the seventeenth century with Egypt, help to establish the exotic location of the narrative, while in the left foreground three of Joseph’s eleven brothers kneel reverently as father and son reunite in one another’s arms. The scene would have had a strong moral resonance at a time when Joseph’s life was portrayed as an example of virtue, imperturbable faith and generosity in the edifying religious literature and plays of the period.
Already by 1662 the writer Cornelis de Bie had voiced his admiration for Francken’s work, and his compositions with their ‘endless bustle’ had great contemporary appeal. The Colnaghi painting shows the artist’s remarkable richness of detail, particularly the elaborate costumes, and the variety of poses, facial expressions and gestures he uses to enliven his narratives. Francken employed a unique oil painting technique of transparent multi-coloured glazes to capture the changing effects of light on textiles, a beautiful example of which can be seen in the figure of the pageboy on the right, taming the horse. The picture is given further narrative appeal by the tenderness of the loving embrace between Joseph and his 130-year old father.
Despite Francken’s attempt to set the scene in the time of the Old Testament, such details as the carriages and the multi-coloured robes of the figures reveal the contemporary background of the painters. The landscape is a typical Flemish forest scene. The castle buildings in the right background also appear in paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, who most probably trained Govaerts, and the landscape can be compared to an Allegory of the Five Senses by Govaerts dated 1624, which has a similar split view with a forest scene in the middle.
Two other collaborative works by Francken and Govaerts, both from 1621, allow a more precise dating of our picture: Europa and her friends decorate the bull (Koninklijik Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp), where the figure group is set in a more detailed landscape, and The Israelites crossing the Red Sea (Kunsthalle, Hamburg), in which the figures are given less prominence within the landscape. The skill with which Francken presents the story through the interaction of figures in the Colnaghi painting, and the way in which he integrates the multi-figural group so harmoniously into Govaerts’s exquisite landscape, suggest that it was executed slightly later than 1621, probably around 1624 and certainly no later than 1626, the year of Govaerts’s premature death. The art historian Heinrich Gerhard Franz described the collaboration of two specialists as ‘a culmination of skill…both technically and formally’ and has argued that the collaborative work should be prized more highly than paintings which reveal the individual ‘handwriting’ of one specialist, because this is how these works would have been appreciated in Antwerp during the seventeenth century.
Ursula Härting
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P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., Ltd - 15 Old Bond Street London W1S 4AX, United Kingdom Tel: +44-20-7491 7408 Fax: +44-20-7491 8851 contact@colnaghi.co.uk
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