(Rotterdam 1699–1769 Amsterdam)
Vertumnus and Pomona
signed at upper right: ESA(M)?
oil on canvas, 55 x 47 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 16th-17th June 1989, lot 356 (as “signed AVD Werff and dated 1679”, this added signature and date has been removed);
Private collection, France

Engel Sam was a late follower of the Leiden ‘Fijnschilders’. He painted portraits and mythological scenes that were closely modelled on works by Adriaen van der Werff. Barbara Gaehtgens, author of the catalogue raisonné on Van der Werff, remarked that the present painting was closely related to Van der Werff’s neo-classicist style of the period around 1720. The art historiographer Jan van Gool supplies ample information about Engel Sam and his paintings. He places particular emphasis on the painter’s ability to imitate the styles of other artists without copying them. In this context he mentions a painting of Vertumnus and Pomona in the manner of Van der Werff. A comparable painting by Engel Sam, A Young Man Leaning against a Stone Pedestal, was once with Peter Mitchell, London.

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 16th17th June 1989, lot 356 (as “signed AVD Werff and dated 1679”, this added signature and date has been removed);
Private collection, France

Engel Sam was a late follower of the Leiden ‘Fijnschilders’. He painted portraits and mythological scenes that were closely modelled on works by Adriaen van der Werff. Barbara Gaehtgens, author of the catalogue raisonné on Van der Werff, remarked that the present painting was closely related to Van der Werff’s neo-classicist style of the period around 1720. The art historiographer Jan van Gool supplies ample information about Engel Sam and his paintings. He places particular emphasis on the painter’s ability to imitate the styles of other artists without copying them. In this context he mentions a painting of Vertumnus and Pomona in the manner of Van der Werff. A comparable painting by Engel Sam, A Young Man Leaning against a Stone Pedestal, was once with Peter Mitchell, London.