Facebook
Twitter
Gmail
Johannes Pauwels Moreelse
Utrecht 1603 - 1634
Shepherd holding a Pan’s Pipe.
Oil on Panel, 71.5 x 59.2 cm
Monogrammed: JPM (in ligature)
Provenance
Probably in the collection of Gabriel Marselis (1609-1673);
Lord of Callenborg Johannes van Marselis (1641-1702);
Jan van Marselis (1672-1724);
Jan van Marselis (1700-1776), Lord of Zandvoort;
Jan van Marselis (1731-1792), Lord of Zandvoort;
Johanna Henriëtta van Marselis (1765-1818) married to Jan Hartsinck in 1781,Zandvoort; in 1821 the name of the last family heir Johanna Henriëtta van Marselis was joined by Jan Hartsinck to his branch of the Hartsinck family;
by descent in the Van Marselis Hartsinck family till the present owner.
Additionnal Information
We are grateful to Dr. Pieter Biesboer for researching and cataloguing this painting.
The present painting is one of a small number of works left by Johannes Pauwels Moreelse who died in Utrecht in 1634 at the young age of about thirty years a victim of the pest epidemic. He was the eldest son Paulus Jansz Moreelse (Utrecht 1571-1638 Utrecht) and Antonia van Wynterhoven. His father was a successful painter of portraits and history paintings who became councillor of Utrecht in 1618 as a result of the troubles between the factions of Pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Prince Maurice of Orange Nassau.
Johannes Moreelse most likely became a pupil of his father and spent his youth in his studio. After his training period Johannes travelled to Italy. In Rome on 28 Februari 1627 he witnessed a document for Johannes Honorius van Axel de Seny together with two fellow artists Hendrick Bloemaert and Thomas Knijff from Utrecht, who probably were his travelling companions. In a manuscript of the Utrecht humanist Aernout van Buchell (1565-1641) he is mentioned as “ridder van St. Peter, pictor”, knighted by the Pope, rather unusual for a Dutch Reformed educated person. After his return in Utrecht Johannes Moreelse probably collaborated with his father in his studio, since he is not recorded as member of the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke and never married or founded a family. On the basis of a record In an inventory of Cornelis van Werckhoven dated 1655 at The Hague of a series of the five senses 3 by the young and 2 by the old Moreelse, we can establish with certainty that they collaborated.
