‘SLECHTE VODEN [EN] LUTTEL WERCK'
On June 8 1643, the Lisbon-based art dealer André de Saintes wrote to his colleague in Antwerp, Guillermo Forchoudt: 'De stucken die ick ontboden heb moeten van Schut wesen. Ick wil die van anders niemant hebben. [...] Synt my geen slechte voden daer ick vele gelts aen sal verlisen.' ('The pieces I have summoned must be by Schut. I want them from no-one else. [...] Don't send me bad rags (i.e. canvases) on which I will lose a lot of money.') Upon receipt of the paintings however, de Saintes was not happy, as he wrote to Forchoudt on August 20 of the same year: 'De doecken van Sr Schut vinde dier, alsoo luttel werck in hebben [...]'1 ('The canvases by Sr Schut [I] find expensive, and also not worked enough [...]') An art dealer complaining - how little has changed.
Managing contemporary artists seems always to have been a challenge. Therefore, when asked why I prefer dealing in old masters, I often joke that dead artists aren't that hard to handle. As a dealer, you buy and sell their work, end of story. However, even then, work by some artists seems to 'find' you more often than that by others. Over time, these artists become, in a way, part of the DNA of the gallery. An artist who has 'found' me in this way at various stages throughout my dealing career is the Antwerp baroque artist Cornelis Schut (1597 - 1655) whose work de Saintes was so eager to acquire. When the idea dawned on me a few years ago to plan a solo show on a Flemish old master - something rarely seen in a commercial gallery - Schut was therefore the obvious choice. For years I patiently collected all I could, read up on the artist and did research of my own. This exhibition is the culmination of those efforts, and Schut, who was an interesting figure as well as a versatile and very gifted draughtsman, proved himself a great subject for a monographic exhibition (the first ever, coincidentally.)
Of course, I would have loved to include even more works, such as tapestries (for which he sometimes produced designs) or more large-scale paintings, but I hope my efforts, however humble, have done him at least some justice. I am grateful to the private collectors and to the Rubenshuis who generously agreed to loan some key works, as well as to the authors who contributed to this exhibition catalogue. Their erudition and expertise far exceed mine, and I count myself lucky to have had them by my side in this endeavour. It has been my great pleasure to collect, research and present the following works. I hope you will derive at least as much pleasure from looking at them.
Download our 2023 exhibition catalogue Cornelis Schut, Pittore Fiammingo here.