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Hendrick Goudt

The Hague 1583 – 1648 Utrecht

Jupiter and Mercury with Philemon and Baucis

gouache

91 x 124 mm.

Provenance

R. Johnson, (died ca. 1877), Manchester and Chislehurst, (Lugt 2216); J.C. Platt, sale, London 23-26 April, 1912 (as Elsheimer); H. Oppenheimer, his sale Christie’s, London 10-14 July 1936, lot 372 (as Elsheimer); acquired by Agnew’s for £126; Lady Robertson, London; Private collection, Amsterdam until 2002

Literature

W. Drost, ‘Adam Elsheimer und sein Kreis’, 1933, p. 143, pl. 85; Heinrich Weizsäcker, ‘Adam Elsheimer, der Maler von Frankfurt, Erster Teil: Des Künstlers Leben und Werke’, Berlin, 1936, two vols., p. 202; H. Weizsäcker, ‘Ein Gemälde von Hendrik Goudt’, Oud Holland LVI, 1939, p. 189 ff; H. Weizsäcker, ‘Adam Elsheimer, der Maler von Frankfurt, Zweiter Teil: Beschreibende Verzeichnisse und Geschichtlichte Quellen’, Berlin, 1952, finished by H. Möhle and published posthumously, p. 43, no. 43; W. Drost, ‘Adam Elsheimer als Zeichner. Goudts Nachahmungen und Elsheimers Weiterleben bei Rembrandt. Ein Beitrag zur Strukturforschung’, Stuttgart, 1957, p. 125, pl. 195,; W. Drost, ‘Gouache-Bildchen von Adam Elsheimer in der Werkstaat Rembrandts, Museion, Studien aus Kunst und Geschichte für Otto H. Förster’, Cologne, 1960, p. 151; H. Möhle, ‘Die Zeichnungen Adam Elsheimers’, Berlin, 1966, pp. 145-6, no. 43, pl. 26; Sotheby’s, London, ‘Old Master Paintings’, 13th December 2001, pp. 69-70, fig. 5, under lot 26

Until recently this drawing was thought to be by Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610). The re-emergence of a painting of the same subject by Goudt at auction in 2001 has confirmed an attribution to that artist (see Literature).

At the beginning of the seventeeth century Goudt travelled to Rome, where he lived with Elsheimer from 1607 until just before the latter’s death in 1610. Early sources imply that he was both Elsheimer’s pupil and patron. Here his inspiration is Elsheimer’s painting of the same subject now in the Gemaldegalerie, Dresden. This picture was in Goudt’s possession by 1612, when the composition was engraved by him, and was one of several paintings by Elsheimer which he took with him from Rome to the Netherlands.

The unusual subject is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Jupiter and his son Mercury, dressed as travellers, seek shelter from a storm. Turned away from rich households they are finally taken in by an old couple, who prepare for them the last of their food and make up beds for them to sleep on.

Two other interpretations of the subject by Goudt are in the British Museum, London and the Fondation Custodia, Paris. Both of these are in brown ink and differently composed. Our drawing, with its use of colour, is the most painterly and intimate version: it shows Goudt at his most anxious to prove himself the equal of Elsheimer.

Acquired by the National Gallery of Scotland.