Jacob Vrel
{{short description|Dutch painter}}
Jacob Vrel (fl. 1654 – c.1670){{Cite book |last=Honig |first=Elizabeth Alice |title=Dictionary of Art |publisher=Macmillan |year=1996 |isbn=1884446000 |editor-last=Turner |editor-first=Jane |volume=32 |location=London |pages=728 |language=en-UK |chapter=Vrel, Jacobus}} was a Dutch, Flemish, or Westphalia
Biography
Jacob Vrel is also referred to as Jan instead of Jacob(us); alternative spellings of his surname are Frel, Frelle, Vreele, Vrelle, and Vriel.[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/82037 Jacob Vrel] in the RKD
Though Vrel's birthplace is unknown, scholars consider him a Dutch artist.
The lack of biographical information and challenging visual evidence has led scholars like Elizabeth Honig to call him "the most entirely elusive painter of 17th century Holland."{{Cite journal |last=Hongi |first=Elizabeth Alice |date=2023 |title=[Review of] Jacobus Vrel: Looking for Clues of an Enigmatic Painter |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=76 |issue=2 |pages=668–670}}
Despite the many architectural elements, bread products or clothing of the figures in his paintings, art historians are unable to assign most of Vrel's street scenes to any particular city or region. Vrel is thought to have composed them mostly from imagination.Liedtke, Walter A., Michiel Plomp, and Axel Rüger (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 114. {{ISBN|0870999737}} As of 2021, two experts have recognized streets and buildings of the Dutch city of Zwolle, not far from the German border in three pictures.{{Cite web |last=spur |date=2021 |title=Vrel? Eine Spurensuche. Entdeckerheft |url=https://www.pinakothek.de/sites/default/files/downloadable/2021-11/pinavrel_entdeckerheft_WEB_2021-11-08.pdf |website=Alte Pinakothek}}{{rp|30}}{{Cite book |last=de Vries |first=Dirk |title=Jacobus Vrel: Searching for Clues to an Enigmatic Artist |last2=Bakker |first2=Boudewijn |publisher=Hirmer |year=2021 |isbn=9783777435879 |location=Munich |chapter=Jacobus Vrel in Zwolle}}
Style
According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), Vrel was a member of the same "school" or artistic style as Pieter de Hooch, showing simple intimate scenes of daily life in towns, often including studies in perspective. Though no evidence for a specific "school" exists, the center of influence seems to have been in the artistic centers of Haarlem and Delft, for artists born during the years 1620–1630. The painters listed by the RKD in this category are Esaias Boursse, Hendrick van der Burgh, Pieter de Hooch, Pieter Janssens Elinga, Cornelis de Man, Hendrick ten Oever, and Jacob Vrel.[https://archive.today/20120909042902/http://www.rkd.nl/rkddb/dispatcher.aspx?action=search&search=standplaats=%22BD/0568+-+ONS/Genre:+De+Hooch+en+school%22&database=ChoiceArtists&id=1 Genre De Hooch school] in the RKD
Vrel's works are sometimes confused with those by Esaias Boursse or Pieter de Hooch.{{Cite book|title=Dutch Painting 1600–1800|last=Slive|first=Seymour|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1995|isbn=0300074514|location=New Haven|pages=158}}
Vrel painted without glazes.{{Cite web |title=Jacobus Vrel |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103K8K |access-date=13 October 2023 |website=The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection |language=en-US}} He often painted his signature on a strip of paper or cloth in his painting, reminiscent of European medieval banners or scrolls. At least half of the pictures by Vrel contain signatures altered to read "Johannes Vermeer" or "Pieter de Hooch."
Work
A range between thirty-eight{{Cite book|title=The Dictionary of Art|last=Honig|first=Elizabeth Alice|publisher=Macmillan|year=1996|isbn=1884446000|editor-last=Turner|editor-first=Jane|volume=32|location=London|pages=728|chapter=Vrel, Jacobus}} and forty{{Cite web|url=https://www.theleidencollection.com/artists/jacobus-vrel/|title=Jacobus Vrel|last=Bakker|first=Piet|date=|editor-last=Wheelock|editor-first=Arthur K. Jr.|website=The Leiden Collection Catalogue|access-date=15 December 2019}} paintings have been attributed to Vrel before the 2021 catalogue raisonne, which names forty-nine.{{Cite web |last=Bailey |first=Martin |date=20 September 2021 |title=Did This Mysterious Dutch Painter Inspire Vermeer? |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/09/20/did-this-mysterious-dutch-painter-inspire-vermeer |access-date=13 October 2023 |website=The Art Newspaper |language=en-uk}}
File:Young Woman in an Interior A20894.jpg
The following public collections contain Vrel´s work in their permanent holdings:
- Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany: Street Scene with Figures in Conversation {{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=Jacobus Vrel: Major New Acquisition for the Alte Pinakothek |url=https://www.codart.nl/guide/agenda/jacobus-vrel-major-new-acquisition-for-the-alte-pinakothek/ |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=CODART |language=en-US}}
- Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK: The Little Nurse
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, US: Interior
- Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt, Paris, France: A Seated Woman Looking at a Child
- Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands: Interior with a Man by a Fireplace
- Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia: [https://hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+paintings/44616 Old Woman by a Fireplace]
- Heylshof Museum, Worms, Germany: Two Cottage Women Conversing
- Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany: Street Corner
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria: [https://www.khm.at/en/objectdb/detail/2103/?lv=detail Woman at a Window], [https://www.khm.at/en/objectdb/detail/4564/?offset=1&lv=list Landscape with Two Men and a Woman]
- Landesmuseum, Oldenburg, Germany: Street Scene with Three Figures
- J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, US: [https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RAJ Street Scene] with People Conversing Near a Barber Shop.
- Museum de Fundatie, Heino/Zwolle, The Netherlands: [https://www.museumdefundatie.nl/nl/collectie/object/?pagina=8&id=160& Interior with a Busy Woman], 1650.
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, US: [https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.160960.html Young Woman in an Interior], ca. 1660.
- Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, France: The Weaver's Workshop
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, US: [https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/102333 Street Scene], mid-17th century
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: [https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-1592 Alleyway in a Dutch Town]; [https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-3127 Woman in Front of a Stove]
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium: The Little Sick Nurse
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium: Interior with a Woman and a Child
- San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US: The Little Sick Nurse
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain: [https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/vrel-jacobus/interior-woman-seated-hearth Interior with Woman Seated by a Hearth]
- Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, US: Square with a Bakery in Front of a Church
- Wallraf–Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany: Interior with an Old Woman
A retrospective exhibition curated by Berndt Ebert of the Alte Pinakothek was to open in late 2020,{{Cite web |last=Jonge |first=Mariska de |date=29 October 2019 |title=Looking for Paintings by Jacobus Vrel |url=https://www.fondationcustodia.fr/Looking-for-Paintings-by-Jacobus-Vrel |access-date=13 July 2022 |website=Fondation Custodia |language=en}} combined printed exhibition catalog and catalogue raisonné by Ebert, Cécile Tainturier and Quentin Buvelot.in 2021.{{Cite web |date=25 May 2021 |title=Jacobus Vrel Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné Published |url=https://www.codart.nl/publications/jacobus-vrel-monograph-and-catalogue-raisonne-published/ |access-date=13 July 2022 |website=CODART |language=en-US}} Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the monographic exhibition on Vrel was rescheduled to be shown in 2023 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague,{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=26 July 2019 |title=Jacobus Vrel, 13 October 2020–10 January 2021 |url=https://www.codart.nl/guide/agenda/jacobus-vrel/ |access-date=15 December 2019 |website=CODART}}{{Cite web |title=Vrel, Forerunner of Vermeer |url=https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/what-s-on/exhibitions/exhibitions-from-the-past/jacobus-vrel/ |access-date=13 October 2023 |website=Mauritshuis |language=en}} and then at the Fondation Custodia in Paris.
References
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Bibliography
- Théophile Thoré. "Van der Meer de Delft." Gazette des beaux-arts [suppl. is Chron. A.] 21 (1866): 458–470.
- Clotilde Brière-Misme. "Un 'Intimiste' hollandais: Jacob Vrel." Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 68 (1935): 97–114, 157–172.
- Gérard Regnier. "Jacob Vrel, un Vermeer du pauvre." Gazette des beaux-arts [suppl. is Chron. A.] n.s. 6, 71 (1968): 269–282.
- Peter Sutton, ed. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting (exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Royal Academy, London, 1984): 352–354.
- Elizabeth Honig: "Looking in(to) Jacob Vrel." Yale Journal of Criticism 3, no. 1 (Fall, 1989): 37–56.
External links
- {{Art UK bio}}
- [http://www.artnet.com/artists/jacobus-vrel/past-auction-results Jacob Vrel] on Artnet
{{Authority control (arts)}}
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Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:Dutch Golden Age painters