Lot 18

Ian Appleby, London (b.1928-d.2021)
P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd, London, 1962 (label verso)
where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of Colnaghi records)

Paintings by Old Masters, P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd, London, 5th April - 12th May 1962, no. 10, plate X (accompanied by exhibition catalogue)

Nicolson, B., 'Stomer Brought Up-to-Date' in The Burlington Magazine, Apr. 1977, vol. 119, no. 889, Special Issue in Honour of Benedict Nicolson (Apr., 1977), p.230-243+245

RELATED WORKS
Matthias Stomer, Man Lighting a Candle from a Firebrand, formerly in the Bartels Collections, Cassel as Honthorst (see Cicerone, May 1921, p. 273).

Matthias Stomer, Soldier Lighting a Candle, oil on canvas, 74 x 63.2cm, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland (inv. M.Ob.219 MNW).

LOT ESSAY:
There is very little known about the early life of this Low Countries painter who settled in Italy and created most of his artistic output there. Matthias Stom (also called Stomer) was thought to have been born in southern Holland or Flanders around 1600 and his early works suggest that he may have been trained in Utrecht in the late-Mannerist tradition of Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651) and Joachim Wtewael (c.1566-1638). His early style though, shows the influence of Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656), who is known to have returned to Utrecht in 1621 after spending more than ten years working in Italy under the influence of the works of Caravaggio with their dramatic contrasts of light and dark. Though there is no documentary evidence of Stom's apprenticeship to Honthorst, he was strongly influenced by the slightly older artist's work and may also have been inspired by him to travel to Italy, where the earliest documented reference to Stom is in 1630 and has him living in Rome, in the same house that another Utrecht painter, Paulus Bor, had occupied earlier. Whilst living there he was able to study first hand the great altarpieces of Caravaggio and his followers, as well as those by van Honthorst. During this time he painted the large altarpiece of The Assumption with Saints Rocco, Sebastian and Carlo Borromeo (now in the Church of Sta Maria di Lorino, Chiuduno) and other larger works now in private collections in Lombardy.

After 1632 he left Rome and went south to Naples, then the second largest city in Europe, which had a tradition of employing Netherlandish artists, many of whom had been working there since the late 16th century. Research on Netherlandish immigrant painters in Naples by Marija Osnabrugge outlines his social milieu there: "discovery of some payments and an accusation filed against him at the ecclesiastical court not only proves his physical presence in Naples, but also sheds light on the social and professional issues that he dealt with in the city. As the accusation was filed by one of his pupils…we now have evidence that he did not work alone in Naples. On the other hand, Stom was involved with social outsiders like English and Dutch sailors, arguably an indication that he did not (attempt to) integrate socially. At the same time, this lack of integration apparently did not frustrate his career: Neapolitan inventories indicate that he was popular amongst collectors in Naples… Stom was appreciated by Neapolitans for his characteristic paintings of candlelight scenes with half figures…Neapolitans credited himwith the introduction of this type of painting…" (1)

Benedict Nicolson in his Burlington Magazine article of April 1977, "Stomer Brought Up-to-date" lists about a dozen such genre scenes of soldiers, musicians, boys and old women all lit by a single light source all having been created in this Neapolitan period. In this list the current painting, then in a private collection in London, is illustrated and places it in the 1633- 39 Neapolitan period as number 85. (2)

Stom then travelled to Sicily where he stayed for almost ten years painting works for churches in Palermo, Messina and Monreale, as well as three canvases acquired in 1648 by Rembrandt's famous collector and patron, Antonio Ruffo, Duke of Messina. As with the lack of information surrounding his birth and early years, his later years are somewhat unknown and can only be tracked by the works he created. The actual date and place of his death are unknown.

Ronan Sulich

(1) Osnabrugge, M, Netherlandish Immigrant Painters in Naples 1575-1654: Aert Mytens, Louis Finson, Abraham Vinck, Matthias Stom and Hendrick De Somer (PhD Thesis) University of Amsterdam, 2015
(2) Nicolson, B, 'Stomer Brought Up-to-Date', The Burlington Magazine, Apr. 1977, Vol. 119, no. 889,Special Issue in Honour of Benedict Nicolson, p.230-243, 245