Jacobus STORCK (Amsterdam 1641 – 1692/1699 Amsterdam)
Mediterranean port scene with ships, architectures and figures
Oil on canvas mounted on oak panel, 39.5 x 46.5 cm
Trace of worn signature on the column on the ground at the bottom left
On the back, old inventory number and annotation: "auf dem unteren stein links A. Storck signiert"
ORIGIN
- German private collection until March 2019.
Coming from a family of artists and second son of three siblings - Father Johannes Storck owned the family studio - who will have joined the guild of Saint Luke, an essential passage for renowned painters.
His paintings are often confused with that of his younger brother Abraham, and by his signature J. Storck with those of his older brother Jan (Johannes). The first name Jacobus spelled out in full on a painting kept in the Enschede museum (Jacobus Storck, View of the village of Overtoom, signed Jacobus storck and dated 1664) and on a few others that appeared on the art market, allows him to give back the authorship of the works. The first known paintings, dated to the years 1660-1665, essentially represent views of canals in Holland. A View of a southern port exhibited in Mainz in 1968 (canvas 54 x 64 cm) is signed and dated: I. Storck A° 1671 (cat N°76 under the name of Johannes Storck); another, Vue d'un port méridional, signed and dated: I. Storck, 1674, is in the Warsaw Museum (panel, 42.5 x 62.3 cm, INV. 158300).
It would seem that in 1670 he traveled with Abraham and then worked in Germany. Jacobus Strock, who is usually attributed (but apparently without any real basis) to a trip to Italy, left a large number of subjects of this kind: these are compositions full of fantasy. The specific animation and all the decorative ingredients of our painting are there united: ancient ruins, brilliant palatial architecture, canoes and ships of all kinds (sometimes of all flags), a picturesque and colorful crowd... details that suggest the cosmopolitan image of an Italian port. Among other singularities concerning the characters of Jacobus, we will also note the assiduity of these elegant couples who strut about on the quays in the midst of sailors and rabble: the rather fat men have a demonstrative gesture. The women invariably wearing fontanges, wear fans and give them their arm. As a good decorator, Storck disseminates architectural quotes, pastiches famous models, amalgamates forms and recomposes the urban landscape according to his own eclectic standards, quite close, it is true, to the Amsterdam taste of the end of the 17th century. The density of the patterns, the warm colors and these great flamed skies in the evening light (or dawn), are very characteristic of the artist's production, with in our painting, the entrance to the building and its double staircase forming a peristyle which is no less singular.
The work, which dates from the 1670s, can be compared to the following paintings:
-Jacobus STORCK, A Mediterranean harbor scene with figures in Oriental dress, shipping beyond, 61.5 x 85 cm, signed and dated 1678: J. Storck 1678 (Christie's South Kensington, 29 Oct 2015, lot 00137).
-Jacobus STORCK, A capriccio of a Mediterranean harbor with the temple of Vesta and a triumphal arch, signed lower right: JStorck fec', oil on canvas, 76.2 x 106.6 cm (Christie's London: April 11, 2013, lot 182).
-Jacobus STORCK, Architectural whim in a Mediterranean port, pen and ink, 8.8 x 14.5 cm (Europ Auction: April 27, 2011, lot 00005).
-Jacobus STORCK, A capriccio of a Mediterranean harbor with a Dutch ship at anchor, a churchyard with a classical column on the embankment, figures descending to the beach the steps of a baroque church, signed and dated 166? Lower right, oil on panel, 60 x 83.4 cm (Christie's London, 8 Dec 2010, lot 00152).
- Jacobus STORCK, A Mediterranean harbor scene with the facade of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, signed STORCK lower centre, oil on panel, 46.5 x 63.3 cm (Christie's Amsterdam, April 13, 2010, lot 00082).
PHOTOGRAPHS DETAILS
