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An alchemist and his assistant

  • 1600s

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BY 4.0

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Warm light from an open window at left falls on the seated figure of an alchemist and his standing assistant. The alchemist glances up from his writing, quill in hand, as his assistant carries in a small vessel. On the floor beside a large mortar and pestle and a blue-and-white apothecary's jar, an opened text reveals a pair of illustrations: one botanical, the other anatomical, suggesting the alchemist's wide-ranging knowledge and his command over nature.

Artist
Provenance

Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus (Denant et al.), Berlin, 18 October 1903, lot 86, as Thomas Wijck.

H. Brück Collection, Tel Aviv, 1962. [1]

[Galerie Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, The Hague, 1969, as Thomas Wyck].

[Alan Jacobs, dealer, London, exhibited 1972-1973, cat. no. 24, as Thomas Wijck] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 18 February 1987, lot 68; sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 22 November 1989, lot 7 [to Eddleman/Spectrum]).

Spectrum Laboratories, Rancho Dominguez, CA, 1989-2000, acquired by Roy Eddleman.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2000 (from Eddleman/Spectrum).

[1] A listing for "H. Brück Collection, Tel Aviv, 1962" is preserved on an RKD photo mount of the painting. The provenence listing seems to have come from an insurance company who provided a photograph, "Algem. Herverzekerings, Amsterdam" which is almost certainly "Algemene Herverzekeringsmaatschappij," now known as "De Alhermij." It is unclear why the insurance company in Amsterdam had a photograph of the painting in the Tel-Aviv private collection. No provenance between 1903 and 1962 has yet been established.
Format
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Extent
  • 41.0 cm H x 38.0 cm W
Subject
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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  • Courtesy of Science History Institute

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Cite as

Heerschop, Hendrik. An Alchemist and His Assistant. Oil paint (paint), canvas (textile material), 1600–1699. Science History Institute. Philadelphia. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/nv935361x.

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