Gerard I Hoet (att.) - Baccanale

Gerard I Hoet (attr.)
(1648 – 1733)

Baccanale
Oil on panel, 68 × 53.5 cm
Within a gilded and carved wooden frame

The painting, oil on panel in generally very good condition, depicts a bacchanal scene with a dance of satyrs, cupids and maidens in indecent dress.

Seated low on the right is an old Bacchus, with a large shell at his side, surveying the scene with his right arm raised. All of it takes place within a pleasant landscape with two tall trees rich in foliage dominating the central part of the panel and visually dividing the right side of the work—a simple rocky background— from the left side, which is more lush and bright with a clear landscape of green valleys and mountains in the distance.

The work can rightly be attributed to the Flemish painter Gerard I Hoet (not to be confused with his son, Gerard II), son of Moses Hoet, a stained-glass decorator, who was also his first master.

At first he assisted his father in his trade, then became a pupil of Warnard van Rysen.

In 1672, due to the French capture of Zaltbommel, he moved to The Hague where he worked on the decoration of salons and ceilings in some of the city’s principal hotels and later moved to Amsterdam and Paris.

After a year, he returned to Northern Netherlands and settled in Utrecht, invited there by M. van Zuylen, one of the period’s principal patrons, for whom he carried out some of his best works.

In this city, in 1697, he founded an art academy together with Hendrick Schoock, of which he was director.

Hoet followed large-scale paintings, often with many figures, in a classical and elegant style, but he produced mainly religious, mythological, or classical subjects, usually of small format, with landscapes in the background in the style of Cornelis van Poelenburch.

It is precisely in this line of works of the latter type that the present piece fits perfectly, a pleasing work in subject, quality and dimensions and worthy of a primary collection.

In case of sale to a client residing outside Italian territory, the seller will handle obtaining the necessary export document—as required by Cultural Heritage regulations—at no additional cost.