| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog N-93 | |
| Auction House | Schley (Philippus); Bosch (Jan); Roos (Cornelis Sebille); Vinkeles (Jacobus); Yver (Jan) -- from catalog: Philippus van der Schley; Jan de Bosch, Jeronimusz.; Cornelis Sebille Roos; Jacobus Vinkeles; Jan Yver | | Sale Location | Ten Huize van C.S. Roos, in 't Huis van Trip, Amsterdam, Netherlands | | Seller(s) | Roos, Cornelis Sebille
Vinkeles, Jacobus
from catalog: Nagelaaten Door Wylen den Hoogh Edele Heere Gerard Godart Baron Taets van Amerongen, Heere van Oud Amélisweerd en Oud Marschalk van 't Neederquartier, 's Lands van Utrecht
from auctioneer's copy: R[oos]; V[inkeles] | | Lugt Number | 6985 | | No. of Painting Lots | 219 | | Notes | The catalogue for this sale was printed in both Dutch and French, but the French edition contained just the first 54 lots, described as the first part of the sale, while the Dutch edition contained 219 lots altogether. The contents were entirely paintings, described on the title page as belonging in part to Gerard Godart, baron Taets van Amerongen(1729-1804) and in part to other, unnamed collectors. The division of the catalogue corresponds to this description, with the first part consisting of lots 1-54 arranged in alphabetical order, described as "een fray Cabinet Schilderyen," and apparently meant to correspond to the "kabinet" belonging to Taets van Amerongen mentioned on the title page. The title page of the French edition, in fact, specifically describes the paintings in this part as being his. The second part, beginning with lot 55, is described simply as the "Vervolg van Schilderyen," leading one to presume that these were the paintings that did not derive from Taets van Amerongen. This interpretation, however, is contradicted by annotations in the RKDH and FLNY copies of the catalogue, both of which belonged to dealers who helped organize the sale. They are annotated with letters next to the individual lots indicating that there were seven consignments, designated C, D, G, R, S, V and Y (which, because of their sequence, appear to be initials rather than arbitrary letters), and that lots 1 through 54 belonged to four consigners, all but one of whom also owned paintings in the second part. (The exception is "D," who owned just three lots in part one.) This suggests that the catalogue was compiled to give the false impression that Taets van Amerongen owned lots 1-54 -- which included the majority of the most valuable pictures -- when in fact he apparently owned no more than a part of them. The only initial in the sequence that might apply to Taets van Amerongen is "G," which would correspond to his given names, Gerard Godart. "G" owned eight of the lots in the first section, but he is given as the source of 27 lots in the second part, which constitutes a major reason for questioning the identification. Nothing more about the nature of the paintings in this group -- or any of the other groups -- suggests an association with Taets van Amerongen, aside from the fact that they constituted the third-largest consignment in the sale and realized the second-largest return (fl. 3207:10). It is also noteworthy that none of these pictures has been traced to earlier sales from the last half of the previous century, and none were bought in at the present sale, as would be appropriate for works consigned by an owner now deceased. However, the connection is not proven.
There are also some, though less compelling, reasons for thinking that the paintings belonging to Taets van Amerongen were those marked with an "R." These were the most numerous (92 altogether) and they brought the highest total amount (fl. 9436:15). Thirty-nine of the first 54 lots belonged to this group. The initial "R" certainly refers to the dealer Cornelis Sebille Roos, one of the organizers of the sale, who might have been acting on behalf of Taets van Amerongen. Roos was also the original owner of the RKDH copy of the catalogue, but the annotations in his catalogue do not indicate, as they usually did, that he was representing someone else. Two of the lots can be traced to the Gildemeester sale of 1800, where one of them, lot no.43 by Schalcken depicting An Old Woman with a Dog on Her Lap, had been purchased by Roos. However, the second Gildemeester painting had been purchased by a different dealer, and other lots in the "R" consignment can also be traced to sales, sometimes recent, where they were acquired by a variety of people. Consequently, an association with Taets van Amerongen can be neither proven or disproven.
Unfortunately, nothing is presently known about the origins or composition of Taets van Amerongen's collection, and there is no record of his having acquired a painting under his own name. He was a native of Utrecht, the son of Leonard Godart (1700-1736) and Maria Jacoba Pynssen van der Aa, lady of Renswoude, Emmikhuijsen and Deijl. He was appointed judge at the court of Utrecht in 1751, a position he held until 1786. He lived in Utrecht at the Wittevrouwenstraat on the corner of the Rietsteeg, and in 1760 he acquired the country estate Oud-Amélisweerd near Utrecht. In 1751 he married Anna Susanna Hasselaer (1730-1788), daughter of the Amsterdam burgomaster Mr. Gerard Aarnout Hasselaer. After his death his books were sold in Utrecht on April 1, 1805 (a copy exists at VBBA), just three months before the present sale. In view of the discrepancy between the claims found in this catalogue and the annotations mentioned above, it seems likely that not only the size but also the importance of his collection of pictures was deliberately exaggerated for the purposes of this sale. However, documents in the Utrecht archives (GAU, Notarieel Archief, not. Jan de Wijs, archief 174, inv. U 315a003, d.d. Dec.17, 1806) indicate that Taets van Amerongen's estate did indeed include paintings which were sold in Amsterdam, and so one of the consignments in the present sale must have been his. Until some proof can be found of what his cabinet did in fact include, it seems hazardous to draw any conclusions about which consignment it was.
The consigners S, V and Y were not represented by paintings in the first part of the sale, and so can probably be excluded as having been associated with Taets van Amerongen. "V" can be identified as the dealer Jacobus Vinkeles, and "Y" may have been the dealer Jan Yver, although this is not certain. Three of the seven pictures belonging to "S" were also bought in by Vinkeles and later reappeared at the sale on August 13, 1806 (cat. no.103) as the property of "J" (represented by V[inkeles]). Two of them subsequently appeared a third time on June 13, 1808 (cat. no.128) as the property of "K," but his identity remains unknown.
The majority of the most expensive lots were among those consigned by R[oos]. The highest price, fl. 800, was fetched by lot 29, the panel depicting A Man Offering Oysters to a Young Lady by Frans van Mieris, which had been bought by Roos at the Gildemeester sale. A landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael from this group brought fl. 750, and a scene in Rome by Lingelbach was sold for fl. 720. A pair of Ruisdael landscapes consigned by "G" was sold for fl. 1500. Two higher prices were registered for a Portrait of a Woman by Van Dyck and a landscape by Hobbema, but both were bought in and cannot be traced. The total receipts for the sale came to fl. 16,133:5. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | FLNY Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages, as well as letters for the sellers. (Dutch edition)
RKDH [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages as well as letters for the sellers. It belonged to the dealer C.S. Roos. (Dutch edition)
AA Annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages. (Dutch edition)
AAP [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. with all buyers and prices. (French edition)
RMA Annot. with most buyers and all prices. (Dutch edition)
MB II Annot. with many buyers and all prices. It belonged to the dealer P.J. Thijs and the annotations are his. (Dutch edition)
EBNP Annot. with many buyers and all prices. (Dutch edition)
ESP Annot. in pencil with all prices. (Dutch edition)
MB I Not annot. (French edition) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | |
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