Oil on canvas.
52 x 61 cms.
Acquired 1959.
National Museum of Sweden.
Another post in an occasional series of photograph of works of art featuring sculptures.
He died in 1715 from striking his head on a window frame
while instructing his pupils.
Photographs below courtesy National Museum of Sweden.
This detail is very interesting in that it shows a bust with a socle with a grotesque head or green man - I have found three other uses of this motif (see below).
George I.
Life size lead bust in a private collection.
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Bust of Inigo Jones.
with the Green Man Socle.
Probably early 19th century by Shout of Holburn.
Soane Museum.
The Bust of Inigo Jones, the original possibly by James Marshall.
The first mention of a bust of Inigo Jones is that by James
Marshall (1598 - 1675).
Marshall whose address was Fetter Lane according to John
Aubrey made the bust for the monument to Inigo Jones in St Benets Church, Pauls
Wharf. City of London damaged in the Great Fire of London and rescued by James
Marshall - it has since disappeared.
I would suggest that this bust is based on a 17th century bust by Marshall now missing.
Bust of Dryden on a monument dated 1722.
Sold by Grisebach, Berlin - 31 May 2018.
Interesting in that it shows two sculptors working on the same piece of sculpture.
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One of a pair of Companion Paintings: Atelier of a Sculptor and
Atelier of a Painter, circa 1713.
Oil on canvas.
99.1 x 116.8
cm each.
Both signed in lower left quadrant: B. V. Bosche F. 17[13?] and B. V.
Bosche F.
PROVENANCE: By continuous descent in the family of Juan II Suros, who
commissioned the pair from van den Bossche circa 1713.
Heritage Auctions Dallas USA - 10 November 2010.
Unusually the catalogue entry is extremely informative and I will reproduce it here -
"According to the present owner, these works were
commissioned by his forebear Juan II Suros, who is represented in the paintings
together with his wife. According to family history, the specific subjects of
the paintings are intensely political in nature and can be described as
follows: Atelier of a Painter, with Juan II Suros and his wife Lisette de
Bourbon admiring a painting of King Philip V of Spain; Atelier of a Sculptor, with
Juan II Suros admiring a sculpture of the Austrian Pretender, Charles III.
Juan
II Suros, a direct descendant of Charlemagne from the Pyrenees in Northern
Spain, had served as Spanish Ambassador of Charles II, the last Hapsburg king
of Spain, to the Austrian Court of Emperor Leopold I in Vienna. He married
Lisette de Bourbon, daughter of Alexander de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse and
Admiral de France, who was a much beloved but illegitimate son of Louis XIV and
the Marquise de Montespan.
When Charles II died without a direct successor, the
Spanish War of Succession began in 1700 between another Charles, the Hapsburg
Pretender, who was the second son of the Emperor of Austria, and Philip, the
Bourbon Pretender, who was the second grandson of Louis XIV. Ambassador Juan II
Suros, who was compromised by both sides (employed by a Hapsburg and married to
a Bourbon), regarded his political position as too delicate, and discreetly
retired to his Countship of Besalu trying not to make any enemies. During the
War of Spanish Succession the Hapsburg side, buttressed by the support of the
Catalans and England, was winning in the person of Charles III. However, the
new young emperor of Austria, Joseph I, older brother of Charles III suddenly
died of typhoid fever, and left behind no children. Consequently his brother
Charles, who had fought so hard to be crowned King of Spain and its colonies.
suddenly found himself the new Hapsburg Emperor of Austria. Ungratefully,
Charles III left Spain and abandoned his supporters to their fate at the hands
of the new Bourbon king, who was crowned Philip V by default. Eventually to
stop the European turmoil, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713. In order
to have the treaty accepted, Philip V had to give away Milan and the Low
Countries to his old enemy, the new Austrian emperor, Charles; part of Provence
and Besancon went to his grandfather, Louis XIV; and to appease England, he had
to agree never to colonize north of the Mississippi River in the New World.
Juan II, with diplomatic experience acceptable to both the Bourbons and the
Hapsburgs, was called out of retirement to become one of the signatories of the
Treaty of Utrecht. During the lengthy deliberations, he spent time around the
region of Antwerp and commissioned these two paintings from van den Bossche. In
them, Suros embedded references to his and his wife's political situation. In
the Atelier of a Sculptor, Juan II is shown alone, without his Bourbon wife,
admiring a sculpture of the Austrian Pretender to the Spanish throne, Charles
III. On the other hand, in the Atelier of a Painter, the couple appears
together, admiring a painting of Philip V, the new Bourbon King of Spain. His
grandfather makes a cameo appearance in the painting in the lower right corner
in an oval portrait.
The present owner reports that for many years his
grandfather routinely joked that "Juan II, diplomat that he was, had one
painting or the other handing in his dining room. It all depended upon the
political tendencies of whomever had been invited to dinner!"
Another
version of the present paintings with very near dimensions, although somewhat
inferior in execution in some of the details, was recorded in the collection of
H. C. Boysen, Berlin in February 1928 (comparative black and white photos courtesy
of the RKD,The Hague). Interestingly while the male figures are very similar
between the two sets of paintings, the equivalent of "Lisette de
Bourbon" in the Berlin painting has entirely different facial features.
Many thanks to Fred G. Meijer, Curator, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische
Documentatie, for his generosity in examining these paintings by van den
Bossche in photographic form, endorsing the attribution based on photographs,
and for his kind assistance in researching comparable works in the RKD photo
archive".
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Balthasar van den Bosch
The interior of a sculptor’s studio, with students drawing
and a sculptor finishing a Hercules sculpture
A pair, oil on canvas.
Both signed,
the first l.l. and the second l.r.: B.V.Bossche.
68.5 x 88 cms.
Sotheby's - 23 May 2017.
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The Interior of a sculptor's studio; and An elegant interior with an Artist painting a portrait of a lady.
Balthasar van den Bossche (Antwerp 1681-1715)
the first signed and dated 'B.V.Bosch.f 1705' (lower right);
the second signed and dated 'B.V.Bosch.f 1705' (lower left)
oil on panel
15 5/8 x 19 1/8 in. (39.6 x 48.4 cm.)
a pair.
Provenance:
Dr. Gorlitzer, from whom purchased by the present owners on
18 April 1944 for 56,000 Reichmarks.
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Another bust on the floor, foreground with the "green man" socle
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Excellent High resolution image.
Note form of the green man socle on the bust on the floor in the foreground.
49 x 59 cms.
Dorotheum Vienna - no date of sale.
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Another green man socle.
1709.
66 x 84 cms.
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
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Note form of the "Green man" Socle on the bust in the foreground.
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66 x 86 cms.
1712
Formerly in Anichkov Palace.
Hermitage Museum.
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Another bust with the green man socle - on the floor in the foreground.
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Note the detail on the socle of the bust on the left.
They say Circle of van den Bosch.
Sotheby's.
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Unknown location and size.
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Statue of Hercules and Anteus.
Unknown location or size.
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Gerard Thomas.
70 x 87.5.
National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
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Balthasar van den Bosch and Cornelis Huysman
The Reception of Jan Karel de Cordes at the Guild Hall.
140 x 182.5 cms.
1711.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.
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Image courtesy Rijksmuseum.
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