Attributed to Francisco Solís (Madrid 1620/1629-1684)
Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest

Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest

Pencil, dark brown ink and wash on laid paper with watermark.

This drawing depicts the physical image of Cornelius van der Geest (+ 1638). A painter and prominent collector of painting, sculpture and other art, during his lifetime he enjoyed the personal friendship of Peter Paul Rubens and Anton van Dyck, among others. Van der Geest's passion for art collecting led the painter Willem van Haecht (1593-1637) to paint The Cabinet of Paintings of Cornelis van der Geest during the Visit of the Archdukes Elisabeth Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria (Antwerp, Rubens House Museum), which depicts the principal works that van der Geest treasured, the latter portrayed in the foreground showing one of his most prized works to the archdukes. The National Gallery in London has a portrait of van der Geest, an original painting by Anton van Dyck, painted when van der Geest was 21 years old.

The use of black pencil (a fact not detected in the cataloguing carried out by Ansorena Subastas, together with the omission of information on the watermark, which we found on the support paper) under the ink and gouache, give this drawing originality in its execution. In our opinion, this design shows a version inspired by one of the two prints that present the portrait of van der Geest, one on a painting (rather than a drawing) by Van Dyck printed by Paulus Pontius (1603-1658) executed by Martin van den Enden (c.1605-c. 1655), another similar one with the intervention of the first two, where the variants with respect to our drawing of the doublet button and some greater mobility in the sitter's hair, make this work a free copy of a drawing based on a print.

We propose that it was by a Spanish draughtsman, specifically Francisco de Solís, on the basis of two facts: 1. - the drawing of van der Geest in the National Museum of Stockholm (25.5 x 18.4 cm NMH 1973/1863) is considered to be an original by Van Dyck, on which, in the lower right corner, appears the inscription ‘CORNELIVS VANDER GEEST’, whether or not it is original by Van Dyck, but it is written by a Flemish personage due to the name ‘Cornelius’; On the other hand, the inscription of the name ‘Cornelius’ in the drawing that concerns us here refers to another sphere, in this case Castilianised, which could relate the execution of this thought by a Spanish-speaking draughtsman; 2. - This fact, together with the signature of Francisco de Solís in the lower right corner of the print depicting the image of van der Geest (now in the Biblioteca Nacional de España), a signature that indicates ownership of the print, has led us to consider the possibility of attributing, with some justification, the authorship of this drawing to the Madrid painter. Perhaps a certain admiration among Madrid artists in the second half of the 17th century for a van der Geest related to important aspects of the art of painting mentioned above led to the creation of this original drawing depicting his effigy.

Provenance:

Ansorena Subastas; auction 387, September 2018, lot 1438, p. 169 (As ‘Flemish School, 17th century); Madrid, private collection.

Reference Bibliography:

Francisco Solís. In Diccionario Biográfico Español (DBE). Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia (RAH). Madrid, 2012; ISBN 978-84-15069-09-6.

http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/41591/francisco-solis