Gerard I Hoet (1648-1733), Attrib. - 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, putti and maidens in disordered attire.

Seated low on the right is an old Bacchus, with a large shell at his side, following the scene with his right arm raised. The whole is set within a pleasant landscape with two tall trees rich in foliage dominating the central part of the panel and to divide the right, simpler rocky background from the left, more lush and bright, with a clear view of green valleys and mountains in the distance.

The work can justly 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 teacher.

Initially 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 main hotels and later moved to Amsterdam and Paris.

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

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

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

It is precisely in the vein of the latter type of works that the present work fits perfectly, a pleasant piece in subject, quality and size and worthy of a primary collection.