A LATE MASTERPIECE BY REMBRANDT’S FRIEND GERBRAND VAN DEN EECKHOUT: SARAH RESTITUTED TO ABRAHAM, 1669. 

According to the apothecary Nicolaes Sebstiaansz. Vlinck, who was a distant relative, Rembrandt died on October the 4th 1669 in Amsterdam. At that time the artist lived on the Rozengracht, not far from the Westerkerk, where he was buried four days later. It is very likely that Rembrandt’s friend, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674), living across the city at the corner of the eminent Herengracht and the Vijzelstraat, added the finishing brush strokes to one of his most ambitious history paintings at that same time. This fully signed depiction of the Old Testament story of the Pharaoh returning Sarah to Abraham (Genesis 12,19) is dated 1669.[i] Last seen in 1903 as part of a sale in Brussels, this important painting resurfaced only recently in a French private collection. The picture is an impressive example of the art of one of Rembrandt’s most gifted and versatile fellow Dutch painters who undoubtedly carefully and closely observed Rembrandt’s career, even maintaining a long-term relationship with the Master which apparently developed into friendship.

The son of a goldsmith, Gerbrand (Gerbrandt) van den Eeckhout was baptized ‘Garbrant’ on the 22nd of August 1621 in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.[ii]His paternal grandfather, Pieter Lodewijcksz., had left the Catholic south of the Netherlands in the 1570s and fled to the northern provinces on account of Mennonite (doopsgezind) conviction. He first lived with his family in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Harlingen before he became a citizen of Amsterdam in 1588. His son Jan Pietersz. (1584-1652), the father of the artist, was the first to add ‘van den Eeckhout’ to his name. In 1606 he married Grietje Claesdr. (1586-1631), the daughter of a shoemaker from Amsterdam. He stated that he was a goldsmith from Harlingen living on Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat. The two brothers of the bride acted as the godfathers of Gerbrand in 1621. One of them, the cloth merchant Jan Claesz. Leijdecker, was portrayed by Rembrandt in 1642 as one of the members of the Night Watch. Only four of the couple’s nine children were alive when Gerbrand’s mother died in 1631. His father remarried two years later. Before his second marriage he had to deposit 6000 guilders at the Orphan’s Chamber for his four under-age children Pieter, Maritgen, Jan and Gerbrand as their maternal inheritance. His second wife was Cornelia Willemsdr. Dedel (1594-1660) from Delft.[iii]She came from an influential and well-to-do family with artistic connections. Her father was a director of the East India Company (VOC), and her aunt was married to the Leiden painter Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg. One of the couple’s sons, Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburgh, later became the first teacher of Rembrandt. Gerbrand’s father’s second marriage elevated the family’s social standing considerably.

Gerbrand, who lived in Amsterdam for all his life, grew up together with his (half)brothers and (half)sisters in the house called ‘’t Vliegende Paart’ (the flying horse) located in the busy Kalverstraat where his stepmother was running a linen shop. Hardly anything is known about Gerbrand’s artistic education. It is likely that he received his first training in the workshop of his father who may have had plans for his son to also become a goldsmith. This notion finds support in a group of design drawings by Gerbrand of frames for paintings, furniture and goldsmith work, mostly in the auricular style, that were later engraved and published in Amsterdam in 1655. Apparently, Gerbrand was more drawn to becoming a painter. It is the art historiographer and painter Arnold Houbraken who in 1718 mentions that Gerbrand joined Rembrandt’s studio but without mentioning exactly when.^[iv] There is however no written document confirming Houbraken’s information, therefore mainly on stylistic grounds it has recently been doubted that the artist trained with Rembrandt.^[v] At the same time, judging by his choice of subject matter, especially for his biblical history paintings which frequently show very rarely depicted stories, and by the style of most of his drawn oeuvre, Gerbrand must have been in close contact with Rembrandt. That they apparently even became friends can be deduced from another of Houbraken’s biographies. In his life of the Dutch landscape painter and printmaker Roelant Roghman (1627-1692), Houbraken calls both him and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout friends of Rembrandt.^[vi]This is confirmed by the last will of Gerbrand who referred to Roghman as ‘his old acquaintance’, leaving him 50 guilders.^[vii] Indirectly, this in turn lends credibility to Houbraken’s account of both artists’ friendship with Rembrandt. Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was a highly gifted and multitalented painter. He painted subjects taken from the Bible, mythology, ancient history, and Roman antiquity. Furthermore, he produced portraits, landscapes, and from around 1650 onwards, genre scenes depicting musical companies as well as groups of soldiers engaged in leisure activities. In his history paintings, especially, he often drew inspiration from Rembrandt and occasionally also from Rembrandt’s teacher, Pieter Lastman. Among his fellow artists he was well known for his connoisseurship of contemporary painting. He was asked more than once to provide his judgement on issues regarding the authenticity of paintings.

After his brother Jan’s death in 1669, Gerbrand, who remained a bachelor for his entire life, lived in the house of his sister-in-law and her children on the elegant Herengracht. Upon his death on the 26th of September 1674, the proceeds from the sale of his artistic estate (which included plaster casts, drawings, and prints) passed under the terms of his will to his nephew who was also his godson and namesake. The painter was buried on the 29th of September in the Oude zijds Kapel in Amsterdam.[viii] 

The subject matter of Gerbrand van den Eeckhout’s painting represents the Pharaoh returning Sarah to Abraham (Genesis 12:19-20). The famine in Canaan referred to in Genesis 12:10 drives Abraham and his brother Lot to move to Egypt with its stores of grain. ‘And there was a famine in the land: and Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there’ (12:10). There he presents his wife Sarah as his sister, because he fears that the reputedly immoral Egyptians would murder him on account of Sarah’s beauty. ‘And it came to pass, that, when Abraham was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes of the Pharaoh’s household also saw her and commended her before the Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into the Pharaoh’s house’ (12:14-15). Abraham received rich gifts, nonetheless God prevented the defiling of a married woman and sent plagues, whereupon the Pharaoh restituted Sarah to her husband. The ruler accused Abraham of deliberate deception, but eventually allows him and his family to be escorted out of the country.‘And the Pharaoh called Abraham and said, ‘’What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?’’ And the Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had’ (12:18 and 12:20).

The scene takes place in a setting of classical architecture as part of the Pharaoh’s palace. In the foreground Abraham kneels reaching out with his arm to Sarah, who comes to him from the left with open arms. She is accompanied by an evidently high-ranking courtier in a turban decorated with pearls and a pearl earring.  From a podium elevated by three steps, flanked by a balustrade to the left and right, the Pharoah observes the scene. He wears a robe of gold brocade that reaches to the ground. Over this a likewise gold-coloured mantel with an ermine collar, together with a turban and crown, a gold chain and a sceptre in his right hand. Behind the balustrade to either side of the podium are the courtiers and dignitaries of the Pharaoh, who either follow the scene in the foreground or discuss it in small groups. Behind the Pharaoh a portal with a round arch gives a view onto classical architecture reminiscent of Veronese, as well as a fountain with the sculpture of a standing woman. An obelisk refers to Egypt and indicates the setting for the event. The scene in the foreground is flanked to the left by a man wearing a turban and to the right by a soldier wearing a cuirass, who is armed with a shield, sword and war hammer. 

The correct identification of the theme is complicated by the existence of a comparable scene, in which Abimelech, King of Gerar, returns Sarah to Abraham. He too was deceived by Abraham about Sarah’s true identity and at first thought she was his sister (Genesis 20:1-18).[ix]God appears to Abimelech in a dream, warning and informing him. (20,3). Sarah returns unmolested to her husband, who then receives rich gifts from Abimelech (20:14). Both subjects were iconographic rarities and are often confused. They were only occasionally depicted both in and outside of Dutch art. The very few known examples are mainly prints. There are, however, two paintings which might have had an impact on Gerbrand’s choice of subject matter. In 1640 the Amsterdam painter Isaac Isaacsz. (1598-1649) depicted the story in a painting which today is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.[x]Accompanied by priests, courtiers and soldiers, the Pharaoh stands on the steps of a palace and reaches with his sceptre to Sarah, who is being received by Abraham. In the background people and cattle travel through a mountainous landscape. The painting was long falsely interpreted as Abimelech, King of Gerar, Returning Sarah to Abraham, from Genesis 20:14.[xi]For the correct identification of the scenes it is often helpful to examine details. On both occasions the Bible text mentions the rich gifts that Abraham received from the rulers. The Pharaoh gave him ‘sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels’ (12:16). From Abimelech Abraham receives, besides sheep, oxen and servants, 1000 pieces of silver as well (20:14-16). The additional monetary gift plays a decisive role in the extremely rare depictions of the return of Sarah by Abimelech.

An example of this may be seen in the engraving by Cornelis Bos (1555-1630) from a series of illustrations from the Old Testament in which Abimelech hands over a pouch with the pieces of silver to Abraham. ^[xii] In the paintings by Isaac Isaacsz. and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout this important detail is missing, so that in both instances it can only be Sarah’s Return by the Pharaoh that is being depicted. Before the fountain in the background of Gerbrand’s painting one recognizes a shepherd with a sheep and two servants with baggage, who clearly prepare for the departure, because ‘they sent him [Abraham] away, and his wife, and all that he had’ (12,20). At the end of the 1640s Gerbrandt’s fellow painter Jan Victors (1619 - 1676) also devoted himself to the rare theme.^[xiii]Victors, like Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, belonged to a group of painters that had close ties to Rembrandt’s atelier starting in the mid-1630s. Both painters evidently knew each other very well and regularly depicted very rare themes from the Old Testament. That Victors also showed the return of Sarah by the Pharaoh and not Abimelech can be seen from the animals in the background right, which also include camels.  Abraham received a gift of camels (12:16) only from the Pharaoh. It is likely that Gerbrand van den Eeckhout knew the composition of the rare theme by Victors from the end of the 1640s. This is indicated by the motif of Abraham kneeling to the left. Already in 1667 Gerbrand had occupied himself with the theme in a smaller version, which corresponds to the main motifs in the painting made two years later, while differing in painting style.[xiv]  This scene also takes place on the steps of the Pharaoh’s palace. The ruler is surrounded by numerous advisors and soldiers. A boy carries the train of a costly mantle, and another servant protects his master from the sun with a parasol. Abraham kneels to the right with outspread arms to receive Sarah, who also in this earlier version is presented by an advisor to the Pharaoh. He is accompanied therein by a black page who holds a parrot on his arm. This is a motif that Gerbrand also took up in his 1669 version. The architectural setting of the scene with palace architecture in the background and the steps on which the Pharaoh and his retinue are placed it is also closely related. The fact that this painting is signed and dated speaks in favour of an independent version and against a preparatory concept for the painting of 1669.

It appears that Gerbrand van den Eeckhout drew inspiration from a design for a tapestry depicting stories from the History of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) by the Flemish painter and Rubens’s pupil Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) for his composition as well as for particular details. Between 1660 and 1665 Jordaens designed a series of eight wall tapestries of the life of Charlemagne. One of the scenes is of The Homage of Caliph Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne.[xv] As model for the weavers in the Brussels manufactory where a number of versions were woven in the 1660s, Jordaens prepared a cartoon (gouache) that is currently in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras on loan from the Louvre.[xvi]There is a painted modello in the René Van den Broek Collection, Brussels.[xvii]Jordaens shows Charlemagne accompanied by his wife and numerous courtiers on the steps of a palace. He turns and reaches out with his sceptre to Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad, who kneels before him in the presence of his company bearing precious gifts. Besides the architecture with a podium and balustrade, there are also details from which Gerbrand drew inspiration. Among these are the motif of the servant with the parasol behind the Pharaoh and a greyhound in the 1667 version, as well as the Nubian page with a parrot in the Arras cartoon, who appear in both versions by Gerbrand. Jordaens was highly admired and sought after as a painter in the Northern Netherlands. He received commissions for the decoration of the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch as well as for paintings with scenes from the life of Claudius Civilis for the Large Gallery of the Amsterdam Town Hall, which he finished in 1661. Apparently, his compositions, often with many figures and exotic details, made a deep impression on Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.

1669 was an especially productive year for Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. He painted at least eight history paintings with various themes from antiquity, mythology, literature and the Bible as well as portraits.[xviii]Pharaoh restituting Sarah to Abraham of 1669 is without doubt his most ambitious painting of that year. The painting impresses not only with the large format of the canvas, but also with its complex composition, variety of motifs and a representation of differing materials and the subtlety of the emotions of the main protagonists which are conveyed by means of gestures and facial expressions. In this painting Gerbrand van den Eeckhout also confirms his reputation as a brilliant colourist. Compared with his paintings from the 1650s and the early 1660s, in which he often used a greater variety of different colours to emphasize certain elements and motifs, his painting of 1669 presents an extremely balanced colour scheme with just a few significant colourful highlights. Compared with the 1667 version of the same theme, the overall colour scheme of the painting is more reminiscent of Rembrandt, with his subtle gradations of brown, grey, and beige tones. Stylistically, however, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout presents himself in this painting as an independent and highly versatile and talented artist who found his own way without merely imitating the late style of his fellow painter and friend, Rembrandt, with whom he apparently stayed closely connected until the death of the Master, in the very year Gerbrand completed the present picture.

Volker Manuth