"Hermit in the Desert: Meditation of Art"

(1623 Tönning - 1678 Friedrichstadt) Meditating Hermit in the Wilderness (St. Jerome as a Penitent). The dating of 1660 on the present painting with its strong chiaroscuro effects and expressive character head coincides with the stay of Ovens in Amsterdam (1657-1663). At the same time, it serves as a starting point for the classification in the oeuvre of Ovens, who functioned as a significant intermediary for the art transfer between the two cultural centers of modern Europe - the art metropolis Amsterdam and the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf. Ovens was a protagonist of the Dutch Golden Age, but also an outstanding figure during the heyday of Gottorf in the 17th century: from 1646 until his death, he was the most important painter in the service of the Gottorf dukes. Due to his training and networking in the circle of Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck, and the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh, he received commissions from both the bourgeoisie and the nobility in the Netherlands as well as in Schleswig-Holstein. Around 1640, Ovens went to Amsterdam, where he was likely a student in Rembrandt's workshop, but probably also learned from Govaert Flinck. From 1651 to 1657, Ovens lived in Schleswig-Holstein; from 1657 to 1663, he followed a six-year stay in Amsterdam, where he probably worked in the studio of Govaert Flinck. In 1663, he returned to Friedrichstadt, where he remained based, except for shorter trips to Hamburg and Amsterdam, until his death. Ovens primarily worked as a respected portraitist, but also as a painter of history and allegorical subjects, as well as some religious works. Stylistically, he shows influential influences of Dutch and Flemish painting, less from Rembrandt than from Govaert Flinck, Jan Lievens, Ferdinand Bol, and Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas; signed and dated "J. Ovens / 1660 f". 111 cm x 92.5 cm. Frame. Provenance: According to an old, difficult to read label on the back, once in the collection of Gio (vanni) Gherardo De Rossi (1754-1827); sold by him in 1802 to a "Cardinal" Venuti; later in the collection of L. Churchill (?) and collection Lüders (?), Berlin, before 1905; auction Bukowski, Stockholm, 11-13 October 1950, lot 170; auction Bukowski, Stockholm, 05-07 December 2000, lot 390; auction Dorotheum Wien, 05 October 2005, lot 261; auction Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2008, lot 209; 2011 Galerie Hans, Hamburg; since then in a German private collection. Literature/Exhibitions: Catalog of the exhibition "Schleswig-Holsteinische Kunst des XV. bis XIX. Jahrhunderts", Carl R. Reineer and Karl Lewinsky, Berlin, 1909/10, p. 28; Harry Schmidt: "Jürgen Ovens. Sein Leben und seine Werke", Kiel 1922, p. 183, no. 85; Catalog "Lehrer Rembrandt - Lehrer Sumowski", Kunstverein Aalen, 2019, pp. 70-73, 123-124, no. 17 (with illustration on p. 71). Documented at the RKD in The Hague under illustration no. 0000180779. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left: "J. Ovens / 1660 f".