Provenance
J.R. Thomas, London;[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 November 1920, no. 155, as _The Butcher_).[2] Dr. Gustav Arens [1867-1936], Vienna; by inheritance to his daughter, Lise Arens Haas [1903-2011, Mrs. Felix Haas], Vienna and Berkeley, California;[3] by inheritance to her daughter, Eva L. Meigher, Chevy Chase, Maryland; gift 2018 to NGA.
[1] Lynda McLeod, Associate Director and Librarian of Christie's Archive, London, kindly supplied the name of the consignor of the painting to the 1920 sale, and she writes that his address in Christie's records is "King Street," which "may suggest that he was a well-known local dealer." See her e-mail of 3 October 2018, in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The painting was sold for £28.8 to Smith [?]. In Debra Miller’s catalogue raisonné of Victors’ oeuvre, the work is listed as in the Cels collection. However, while the auction catalogue begins with the Cels’ collection, lots starting with no. 102, are “The Property of a Gentleman.” See Debra Miller, "Jan Victors (1619-76)," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark, 1985: 314, no. 97, repro. 448.
[3] This painting, along with other works from the Haas collection, was confiscated by the German Nazi authorities in 1938 from the Haas home in Vienna and deposited in the Zentraldepot für beschlagnahmte Sammlungen in that city. The painting was recovered after the war and restituted to the family in 1948. See U.S. National Archives, RG 260, Records of the Munich Central Collecting Point/Administrative Records/Restitution Claim Records/Austrian Claims/Alphabetical, Haas-Honig; copies in NGA curatorial files. Copies of additional documents relating to the confiscation and restitution of the Haas collection were kindly supplied by Anneliese Schallmeiner of the Kommission für Provenienzforschung beim BKA, Vienna, and are in NGA curatorial files (see her e-mail of 6 June 2019), as is a personal note about the painting's history from Mrs. Eva Meigher, 9 March 2018.
Accession Number
2018.31.1
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 39.6 × 51.9 cm (15 9/16 × 20 7/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift in honor of Felix and Lise Haas
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Panel Painting Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Jan Victors (c. 1619-after 1676) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, a pupil of Rembrandt, known for his biblical subjects and genre scenes in the Rembrandt-like chiaroscuro that distinguishes his best work. The Slaughtered Hog from 1653 depicts a slaughtered pig in the direct, unvarnished manner that Dutch genre painters brought to everyday subjects. The 1653 date places this in Victors's most productive period, when he was producing both the biblical subjects and the genre scenes that make him one of the most accomplished Rembrandt pupils in the genre mode.
Cultural Impact
The Slaughtered Hog is important in the history of Dutch genre painting because it demonstrates the direct, unvarnished manner that Dutch genre painters brought to everyday subjects. The slaughtered pig was a common Dutch genre subject that reflected the everyday life of the Netherlands, and Victors's treatment shows the Rembrandt-like chiaroscuro applied to a homely subject that the more grandiose tradition would never have considered.
Why It Matters
The Slaughtered Hog is Victors's Rembrandt-like genre: a slaughtered pig rendered with the direct, unvarnished manner and Rembrandt-like chiaroscuro that distinguish his genre scenes. The 1653 painting shows the Rembrandt pupil applying his master's chiaroscuro to a homely Dutch genre subject.