The Lace Maker dated 1846
Oil on panel | 41.3 x 44.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 406575
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Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans (1811-1888) was born in Leirren, Belgium. He was a professor at the Antwerp Academy from 1841 to 1854. His work was shown in Antwerp and at the Royal Academy, London, between 1846 and 1869. He was a genre painter, firstly a pupil of Theilemans and Vervoort, then of Wappers. His painstakingly detailed pictures, often inspired by Dutch 17th-century art, earned him the soubriquet ‘The Belgian Gerard Dou’.
This elderly lace-maker is a tribute to a range of Dutch Old Masters (Nicolaes Maes and Caspar Netscher as well as Gerrit Dou). Dyckmans often shows single figures, usually women, engaged in some domestic activity. It is a variant of the picture, signed and dated 1844, which was sold at Christies, 19 March 1993. There are paintings of a similar old woman, with her cat, sewing, signed and dated 1843 (Phillip’s sale, 12 March 199), and spinning, signed and dated 1845 (Christie’s sale, 23 March 1976). As in 17th-century examples, industry is allied to piety (though in this case Catholic rather than Calvinist): a rosary is wrapped around a prayer book on the window ledge and an image of the Virgin stands on the wardrobe.Provenance
Given to Prince Albert by Queen Victoria on his birthday, 26th August 1846; recorded hanging in the Prince Consort's Writing Room (Room no 210) at Windsor Castle in 1878
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on panel
Measurements
41.3 x 44.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
72.0 x 73.7 x 5.6 cm (frame, external)
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Object type(s)