Portrait of Marin Marais (formerly identified as Johann Schenk)

Saint-Jean, J. Dieu De (active 1695)

Netscher, Constantin (1668-1723) (formerly attributed to)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1685

Height:

68.8 cm  (27 1/16 in.)

Width:

52.7 cm  (20 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

This well-known painting was long attributed to Constantin Netscher and thought to represent the Dutch viol player Johannes Schenck. Later careful examination of the painting has revealed a partially obscured signature belonging to the portrait painter Jean de Dieu dit Saint-Jean (1654–1695). The viol held by the player, often described as having only six strings, in fact has seven; thus it is a French instrument, a type never used by Schenck. On the stool appears a prelude by Marin Marais found in his first book of 1686. The music on the stool, however, is a MS version that predates the printed one. It is highly unlikely that a professional musician would have himself painted with the music of another composer. The figure in the painting is undoubtedly Marin Marais painted prior to 1686.

People as subjects

Marais, Marin (1656-1728) (Musician portrait)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Viola da gamba [3604] (with seven strings)

Musical works

Marais, Marin -- Pièces de violes, 1er livre. 3ème prélude (ré mineur)legible music notation

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2
image link 3

Bibliographic references

Abramowicz, Sylvia, Jonathan Dunford and Corinne Vaast. Recherche sur un nouveau tableau de Marin Marais comme jeune homme (blog) http://a2violes.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/recherche-sur-un-nouveau-tableau-de-marin-marais-comme-jeune-homme

Dunford, Jonathan and Corinne Vaast. "Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean (1654–1695): Dessinateur de gravures de mode et peintre d'un portrait de Marin Marais", Musique, images, instruments 10 (2008) 172-181. RILM 2008-7719.

Dunford, Jonathan. "Un portrait du musicien Marin Marais par Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean au musée du château de Blois", Cahiers du château et des musées de Blois 37 (2006). RILM 2007-23910.

Dunford, Jonathan with Pierre-Gilles Girault. A portrait of the musician Marin Marais by Jean Dieu dit Saint-Jean in the Museum in the Chateau of Blois", Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America 44 (2007) 5-12. RILM 2008-7032.

RIdIM record id

3630