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 Bacchanalian scene with a dance of satyrs, putti and maidens in disheveled garments.

Sitting at the lower right a old Bacchus, with a large shell at his side, follows 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 visually dividing the right, simpler rocky background from the left, which is richer and lighter 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 teacher.

Initially he assisted his father in his profession, later becoming a pupil of Warnard van Rysen.

In 1672, due to the French seizure of Zaltbommel, he moved to The Hague where he worked on the decoration of halls and ceilings in some of the city’s major hotels and, subsequently, he moved to Amsterdam and Paris.

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

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

Hoet painted large works, often with many figures, in a classical and elegant style, but predominantly produced 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 the vein of the latter type of work that the piece presented here fits perfectly: a pleasant work in subject matter, quality and size, worthy of a top collection.