| Commentary | On Marten van den Broeck, see the NOTES to R 33322 of Montias2 and the INTRO to R 467 of Montias1, which concerns an important lot of paintings that Marten van den Broeck had sold to a merchant named Andries Ackersloot three years before his bankruptcy. This sale included five paintings by Rembrandt, three of them, apparently, representing members of Rembrandt's family (Rembrandt himself, his wife, and his minnemoer, who was perhaps Gierte Dirx). The present inventory includes 19 paintings of tronies, many of them oude mans tronien, a specialty of the Rembrandt atelier. Several of these paintings were located in the achtercamer and were without frames (along with other New Testament paintings that could also have come from Rembrandt's atelier.) As a general rule, private collectors had few unframed paintings, which were more frequently found in the inventories of dealers. All this evidence tentatively suggests Marten van den Broeck might, in addition to his silk cloth business, have engaged in art dealing and that he might have used his house as an outlet for the paintings of the Rembrandt atelier. A possible link between Marten van den Broeck and Rembrandt may have been forged via his mother Catalijna Soolmans, who was the sister of Maerten Soolmans who had been portrayed by Rembrandt in 1634 (Gary Schwartz in his biography of Rembrandt makes much of this connection (see pp. 192-193, 221, 232, 249, and 253)). Unfortunately, none of the paintings in the present inventory is attributed. |
