Jakob Ernst THOMANN VON HAGELSTEIN
Lindau, 1588–Lindau, 2 October 1653
German painter
Jakob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein was born in Lindau. He may have trained in Kempten and Constance; he met Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610) in Rome in 1605, is documented in Naples in 1613, and was back in Lindau in 1614. He served the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand III (1608–57) in different capacities and was elected to the council of the City of Lindau in 1649, after which he was too busy to continue painting.
LITERATURE
Houbraken 1718–21, i, pp. 131–132; Wegner 1969; Wegner 1973; not in Turner 1996; Seifert 2005; T. Seifert in Klessmann 2006, pp. 212–13, 221, 227; not in Saur; RKDartists&, no. 35220: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/35220 (March 30, 2018).
Attributed to Jacob Thomann von Hagelstein
DPG22 – Susannah and the Elders
1620s; copper, 23.3 (or 23.5?) x 29.9 cm
PROVENANCE
?‘Consigned from abroad’, Christie’s, 23 March 1781 (Lugt 3241), lot 55, Elsheimer, Susannah and the elders;1 Bourgeois Bequest 1811; Britton 1813, p. 31, no. 329 (‘Unhung / no. 60, Susannah & Elders, landscape & buildgs P[anel] Elshiemer’; 1'4" x 1'6").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 16, no. 310 (‘FOURTH ROOM – East Side; Susannah and the Elders; Elsheimer’); Haydon 1817, p. 397, no. 310 (Elsheimer; Susannah and the Two Elders); Cat. 1820, p. 16, no. 310; Cat. 1830, p. 13, no. 297; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 492, no. 297 (Elzheimer);2 Kugler 1846, ii p. 310 (ascribed to Elzheimer); Denning 1858, no. 297;3 not in Denning 1859; Lejeune [not in Biblio], ii, 1864, pp. 265–6 (Adam Elzheimer; Suzanne et les deux Vieillards) Sparkes 1876, p. 64, no. 297 (Elsheimer); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 64, no. 297 (Elshaimer [sic]);4 Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 6, no. 22 (early work); Cook 1914, pp. 14–15; Bode 1920, p. 44; Cook 1926, pp. 14–15; Weizsäcker 1928–9, pp. 69–70 (early Elsheimer); Drost 1933, pp. 75–7, no. 30 (fig. 31); Weizsäcker 1936, i (text), pp. 133–5, pp. 330–31 (note 264); p. 65 (in vol. i (ill.), fig. 76 (Elsheimer); Cat. 1953, p. 19 (Adam Elsheimer); Paintings 1954, pp. 15, [59]; Bauch 1967, p. 90 (Johann König); Waddingham 1972, p. 611 (?Thomann von Hagelstein); Andrews 1977, p. 166, no. A8 (rejected as Elsheimer; possibly by König or Thomann von Hagelstein); Murray 1980a, p. 57 (circle of Elsheimer); Murray 1980b, p. 13; Dorsch 1985, p. 78 (fig. 4; circle of A. Elsheimer; wohl eher Toman von Hagelstein zuzuschreiben (better to attribute to Thoman von Hagelstein [than to König]); Beresford 1998, p. 238 (Thomann von Hagelstein); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 267; RKD, no. 289020: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289020 (April 1, 2018).
EXHIBITIONS
London/Leeds 1947–53, n.p., no. 15 ; London 1999b (no cat. no.; c. 1620s).
TECHNICAL NOTES
The painting is in very good condition. There is some degradation in the blue pigment and the foliage has discoloured a little. There is minimal restoration and the varnish is only very slightly discoloured. Previous recorded treatment: 1866, revived and varnished.
RELATED WORKS
1) Jakob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, signed and dated J.E.T. (as monogram) 1605, copper, 41.2 x 36.9 cm. Zeppelin-Museum, Friedrichshafen, ZM1963/5/M [1].5
2) Johann König, Susannah and the Elders, copper, 52 x 76.6 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 687.6
3) Johann König, The Toilet of Bathsheba, signed Johannes[?] König fecit, copper, 23 x 33 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, WA1945.100 [2].7
4) Crispijn de Passe I, Susannah and the Elders, engraving, 110 x 145 mm. RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-P-OB-2171 [3].8
This picture was long thought to be by Elsheimer, an umbrella name under which many pictures were sheltered. Kugler in 1846 was already doubtful: he called it ‘ascribed to Elsheimer’. It remained an Elsheimer, even an early one, until Bauch suggested Johann König (1586–1642), who might have met Elsheimer in Rome in 1610; in a Susannah and the Elders by König the elders are dressed in a somewhat similar way (Related works, no. 2). Soon after that, Thomann von Hagelstein was put forward as the author. This was prompted by a picture that is signed J.E.T and dated 1605 (Related works, no. 1) [1], which is stylistically very close to DPG22. The œuvre of Thomann von Hagelstein is difficult to establish, but it seems to differ from that of other followers of Elsheimer. Murray returned to the König attribution, comparing DPG22 unconvincingly with a Bathsheba in the Ashmolean Museum (Related works, no. 3) [2].
Weizsäcker in 1936 noted a print by Crispijn de Passe I (1564–1637) in which the group of figures on the left and the general outline of the garden show some similarities to the composition here (Related works, no. 4) [3].
DPG22
attributed to Jakob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein
Susannah and the Elders (Daniel 13:1-63), 1620-1630
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG22
1
Jakob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein
Judith with the Head of Holofernes, dated 1605
Friedrichshafen, Zeppelin-Museum, inv./cat.nr. ZM1963/5/M
2
Johann König
Toilet of Bathsheba, 1610-1616
Oxford (England), Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, inv./cat.nr. WA1945.100
3
Crispijn de Passe (I)
Susannah and the Elders (Daniel 13:1-63)
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-2171
Notes
1 GPID (Feb. 7, 2013).
2 ‘A small highly finished picture in the Dutch style.’
3 ‘Susanna and the Elders; Adam Elzheimer […] Mrs Jameson merely says of this “a small highly finished picture in the Dutch style” and Kügler ii. p. 310 only refers to it as “ascribed to Elzheimer.”’
4 ‘An early work of the master, who aimed at giving the scene of the Holy Scripture a romantic appearance.’
5 RKD, no. 289037: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289037 (April 8, 2018); Waddingham 1972, pp. 610–11 (note 54), read the date as ‘1607’; Held 1966, p. 70, no. 105 (fig. 83), read ‘1609’; Seifert 2005; T. Seifert 2006 in Klessmann 2006, p. 212, ‘1605’; and Seifert 2011, pp. 34–5 (fig. 18; ‘1605’).
6 Sitt 2007, pp. 215–7, no. 687; Dorsch 1985, p. 76, fig. 1.
7 RKD, no. 289023: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289023 (April 4, 2018); White 1999a, pp. 76–7, no. A 718.
8 RKD, no. 289024: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289024 (April 4, 2018); see also http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.160628 (April 1, 2018).