Jacob de Wit was born in Amsterdam in 1695. He received his first training, with the painter Albert Spiers, at the early age of nine. When he was thirteen, he went to Antwerp to study at the Academy. He became a pupil of Jacob van Hal, and went on to become a member of the guild of St Luke in 1714. While in Antwerp, he produced a series of watercolour sketches of the ceilings decorated by Rubens in the Jesuit St Carolus Borromeus Church. As the church was struck by lightning a few years later and the ceilings were lost in the fire, these works, which were later engraved, became important historical documents. The work and style of Rubens – especially his cycle for the Borromeus church – were to leave a lasting impression on de Wit.

 

In 1715, de Wit returned to Amsterdam, where he became a much sought after artist for his decorative paintings on walls, doors and ceilings. Wealthy patrons who lived on the grachten in Amsterdam commissioned decorations from him. As many of them also had country houses, de Wit did a lot of work in neighbouring Haarlem and Vecht as well. De Wit was a great illusionistic painter who often worked in grisaille. He was also a prolific draughtsman, producing a great number of sketches and drawings for his projects, as well as independent 'picture' drawings, intended as works of art in their own right. His work is represented in nearly all major institutional collections, in addition to many private collections.

 

The present charming pair of watercolours can be dated to de Wit’s mature period. They can be connected to two overdoor paintings (oil on canvas, ca. 140 x 104 cm; see ill. 1 and 2) currently kept at Heerlijkheid Hoevelaken (The Netherlands), which form part of a decoration scheme consisting of three paintings by Jacob de Wit and one anonymous canvas. As both the Neptune and the third painting by de Wit - which depicts A Pair of Lovers - are signed and dated 1744,  the present pair can be dated to the same year. The watercolours were made either as designs for the paintings (de Wit produced preparatory drawings for most of his paintings), or as a ricordo.

 

The pair is a beautiful example of de Wit’s skill as a draughtsman, while also demonstrating his interest in classical mythology. While Neptune, drawn by his sea chariot by horses - according to mythology, he had invented the horse - and accompanied by sea creatures and mermaids was a common enough theme with the old masters, the scene depicting Ceres, Cybele and Abundance certainly is not, making this work all the more interesting.