(Harlingen 1608–1651 Amsterdam)
A young man in liturgical garments (St. Stephen?) oil on panel, 63.9 x 45.2 cm, framed,

Provenance: 1920, London art market; Sale Bukowskis, Stockholm, 9 Nov. 1966, lot 127; Galerie Scheidwimmer, Munich; Sale Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1998, lot 185; Rhenish Private Collection.

 Exhibited: “Der große Virtuose – Jacob Backer”, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, 2009, cat. no. 3.

Literature: K. Bauch, Jacob Adsriaensz. Backer, Berlin 1926, p. 84, no. 88; W. Sumowski, Die Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. I, Landau 1983, p. 196, no. 20; Der große Virtuose - Jacob Backer, ex. cat., Aachen 2009, no. A9.

The young man depicted here wears the liturgical garment of a deacon and in his arms carries what seems to be stones, so that he can be identified as the protomartyr Saint Stephen. In the catalogue accompanying the seminal Backer exhibition staged in 2009 it is pointed out that our painting is reminiscent of Rubens’s approach to figure painting particularly when it comes to the master’s series of the Apostles. The present painting probably also formed part of a series (compare Old Man in Liturgical Garment in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg). “It cannot be excluded that Backer’s Saint Stephen served study purposes or was made in preparation for a more finished work. Nevertheless, the painting might just as well have been intended as a work of art in its own right whose character of a study relates to a pictorial convention that had been established for autonomous ‘tronies’ as early as the 1630s.” Backer seems to have created this half-length figure in 1632/33. This is suggested by the manner of painting and the figure style inspired from Rubens, which directly followed Backer’s Leeuwarden period. On the other hand, the work’s stylistic closeness to the Old Man in St. Petersburg, which Backer presumably did shortly after his arrival in Amsterdam, might suggest that the painting dates from the early years in Amsterdam. Jacob Adriaensz. Backer was one of the most important students of Rembrandt. The superior quality of his art also becomes evident in the present painting.

Provenance: 1920, London art market; Sale Bukowskis, Stockholm, 9 Nov. 1966, lot 127; Galerie Scheidwimmer, Munich; Sale Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1998, lot 185; Rhenish Private Collection. Exhibited: “Der große Virtuose – Jacob Backer”, Suermond