THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140072
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
ALL HAIL the fates! A couple, separated for more than a century, has been reunited. And they don't appear to have aged a minute. Nor have their expressions changed.
Art lovers of a romantic bent can visit with them. They're hanging, side by side, in an upstairs gallery in the Chrysler Museum.
``Portrait of a Man'' (1650) by Dutch painter Ferdinand Bol has been on view in the museum since 1971, when Walter P. Chrysler Jr. brought his art collection to Norfolk.
Last year, its companion was found. ``Portrait of a Woman Holding a Flower,'' also believed to be dated 1650, was spotted in a New York gallery by ``a friend of the museum,'' said Jeff Harrison, the museum's chief curator.
Harrison dashed to Manhattan, his fingers crossed. When he saw it, ``I was de-lighted,'' he said. The museum purchased the work for an undisclosed sum.
It's highly unusual to be able to locate and acquire a companion portrait, Harrison said. ``This represents a very rare opportunity for any museum.''
Bol (1616-1680) was a student of Rembrandt's who became a very successful Amsterdam painter. The sitters' names are not known, but Harrison is sure the couple was upper class Dutch, as were most of Bol's patrons at that time.
The twosome was unveiled without ceremony last week. But the timing - just days before Valentine's Day - was auspicious.
Harrison believes the Bol portraits commemorated the couple's wedding.
In the woman's left hand is a red French rose - flower of Venus, or love. That hand also rests on a stone sphere on a balustrade, indicating that ``this is not the sort of romantic love we talk about today. A more profound spiritual love serves as the foundation for their marriage,'' Harrison said.
The man's setting also includes the sphere and balustrade. The sphere stands for the world, in all its chaos and motion. The stone base on which it sits represents faith in God.
If you believe in God, the symbol proposes, your journey through life will be secure. Later, the symbol evolved into a scenic detail in portraiture, gradually losing its meaning for viewers, he said.
The two are well-dressed but conservative in ``Calvinist black'' garb, he said. The man is very grand and expansive in his posture, while she assumes a more demure stance.
``Perhaps we have a merchant and his wife,'' Harrison mused.
The woman's portrait had been part of a private British collection. But Harrison doesn't know whose collection it was, or how long it was in Britain. This leaves a fair gap in the provenance, or history, of an artwork's ownership. Art dealers often are charged with assuring the seller's anonymity, Harrison said.
The first known documentation of the man's portrait was in an 1887 catalog of old master paintings from the private collection of a Philadelphia collector, W.L. Elkins.
The earliest known mention of the woman's portrait was in 1907, when it was part of the famous Paris collection of Charles Sedelmeyer.
Chrysler probably purchased the man's portrait in the 1940s, Harrison said. The collector loaned the painting to the museum from 1971 to 1985, then donated the work.
To have the pair together enhances appreciation for each portrait. ``It's more like a geometric progression rather than simple addition,'' Harrison said. ``You get, literally, the entire picture,''
``Compositionally and spiritually, he is completed by being reunited with his wife. ILLUSTRATION: [Paintings]
by CNB