Attributed to Matthaus Merian the Elder

Essay:

This painting was first brought to light by Alfred Barr, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1930. It was at first thought to be by Guiseppe Arcimboldo or his circle and it became part of the Barr family's personal collection. When the work was cleaned and restored in 1954 the inscription 'Meriani' was discovered. This indicates that the painting might be by the hand of the Swiss engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian (1593-1650), an artist whose painted works are even more rare than those of Arcimboldo. The painting's composition is a variant, in reverse, of an engraving c.1625 by Merian (Wüthrich 576 II; Hollstein 405).

This strange and fantastical anthropomorphic painting was undoubtedly inspired by the creations of Arcimboldo. Arcimboldo made no prints himself, but his paintings were so popular that they were copied and disseminated around Europe, which in turn led to further engravings and paintings being produced in his anthropomorphic mode. The style was most popular in Italy and Central Europe (where Arcimboldo worked at the courts of Prague and Vienna) in the late 16th and 17th centuries. As the owner of a thriving engraving and printing business it is natural that Merian should want to involve himself in this profitable trend.

Known as an engraver and topographer, only a handful of drawings and only one painting are fully attributed to Merian, the latter being a view of Basel from the South, c.1615, a subject which he was to engrave (Basel Historical Museum, inv. dep. 38). This suggests the possibility that the present picture is likewise a study by Merian for the engraving. Most of his drawings are landscapes in the tradition of Jan Brueghel or in a manner reminiscent of the peculiar style of Albrecht Altdorfer, such as the two paintings attributed to Merian in the Kunstmuseum Basel (inv. 433 and 1937). His son Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621 - 1687) was primarily a portrait painter and is unlikely to have painted the present picture, especially as the engraving was published when he was a child.

A note on the provenance:
Alfred Barr exhibited this painting (anonymously from his own collection) in the ground-breaking 1936 MoMA exhibition 'Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism'. Here it was displayed alongside a selection of other works by important old masters known for their fantastical designs (including Arcimboldo and Bosch), in part to encourage his audience to see the neighbouring controversial Surrealist works and the movement more generally as, in Barr's words, a "serious affair". The exhibition shocked audiences and is regarded as one of the most important exhibitions that Barr created.

Hanging in the exhibition were icons of the Dada and Surrealist movements including Giorgio de Chirico (Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914, and The Disquieting Muses, 1916-18), Marcel Duchamp (The Bride, 1912), Picasso (Seated Woman, 1927), Rousseau (The Dream, 1910), Max Ernst (The Elephant Celebes, 1921), and Meret Oppenheim (Object, Fur-covered Cup, Plate and Spoon, 1936). Also shown were paintings, drawings, found objects and sculptures by Klee, Chagall, Magritte, Masson, Miro, Henry Moore, Man Ray, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Austria, before 1930.
Purchased from an art gallery in Bad Gastein, Austria, in the summer of 1930 (as per Alfred H. Barr, Jr., personal letter to Helen Franc of Magazine of Art, 27 Oct. 1949).
Collection of Mr. Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (1902 - 1981), New York.
Given by Margaret Scolari Barr (Mrs. Alfred Barr, Jr.) to her daughter Victoria Barr in 1984 (as per Margaret Scolari Barr, personal letter to "David," 23 Oct. 1985).
Victoria Barr (1937 - 2025), New York.

Literature:

A. Barr (ed.), Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936, no. 6, p. 200. illus. p. 22.
P. Wescher, The Magazine of Art, 43, 1950, 1, pp. 3ff.
Benno Geiger, I Dipinti Ghiribizzosi di Giuseppe Arcimboldi, Pittore Illustionista del Cinquecento 1527-1593, Florence, 1954, pp. 41, 146; illus. pl. 19.

Exhibitions:

New York, MoMA, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, 9 Dec. 1936 - 17 Jan. 1937, no. 6 (as "Arcimboldo, Tradition of: Landscape - head (double image)".
Indianapolis, The John Herron Art Museum, Pontormo to Greco: The Age of Mannerism, a Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the Century 1520-1620, 14 Feb. - 28. March, 1954, no. 46 (as "Tradition of Giuseppe Arcimboldo").
Wellesley College Museum of Art, Exhibition of Landscape Paintings, Spring, 1956, no. 12 (as "Tradition of Giuseppe Arcimboldo").
New York, Wildenstein Gallery, Masters of Seven Centuries, 1 - 31 March, 1961, no. 14 (as "Matthieu Merian").