A Puritan Meeting, with a Self-portrait of Egbert Van Heemskerck (c.1635-1704)
Egbert van Heemskerck the elder (Haarlem c.1634 – London 1704)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1678 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
495 x 599 mm (19 1/2 x 23 1/2)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872129
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Puritan Meeting, with a Self-portrait of Egbert Van Heemskerck (c.1635-1704) by Egbert van Heemskerck the elder (Haarlem c.1634 – London 1704), signed and dated, centre right: E Hkerk / 1678. Numerous figures in a hall, some seated in a gallery at the right. Isolated members of the congregation appear to be singing, but they may be talking, declaiming or snoring. In the left-hand corner, the artist himself holding a palette in his hand, is discerned. He is indicating, with a mocking expression, an old woman beside him having a religious fit. This is one of only five certain works by Heemskerck, who came to England in the 1670s and is known for painting scenes of tavern and domestic interiors, trial and Quaker meetings.
Provenance
Accepted by the Treasury in part payment of death-duties from the executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951) and transferred to the Trust in 1957.
Credit line
Saltram, The Morley Collection (accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, and transferred to The National Trust in 1957)
Makers and roles
Egbert van Heemskerck the elder (Haarlem c.1634 – London 1704), artist
References
Raines 1989 Robert Raines, 'Notes on Egbert van Heemskerck and the English Taste for Genre', The Walpole Society, Vol.LIII, 1987 (1989) , pp.122, 123, 136, appendix A, No.1 and Fig.171