Jacob Houbraken's engraving, “Portrait of Jan Kuiper, aged 107”, c.1745

Jacob Houbraken (aka Jacobus Houbraken) (1698–1780)

“Portrait of Jan Kuiper, aged 107”, c.1745, after Jan Maurits Quinkhard (1688–1772).

Engraving on laid paper with wide margins and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 37.8 x 28.8 cm; (plate) 24.5 x 17.7 cm; (image borderline) 23.4 x 16.9 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline in five lines of Dutch: (on tablet below portrait) “JAN KUIPER, gemeenelyk genaamd JAN PRAKTISEER,/ Geboren 10 Maart, 1638, oude styl, te Klein Ammers, by Schoonhoven./ Hy heeft in zyn eerste huwelyk gewonnen Achttien Zonen, en in zyn/ tweede Twee Zonen en Twee Dochters: zynde hy Ao. 1745 noch in't/ leven, en Disgenoot in het Hiobs Gasthuis, buiten Utrecht.”

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (left) “J.M. Quinkhard Pinxit 1745"; (right) "J. Houbraken sculpsit Amst."

Ver Huell 1875 258 (Alexander Ver Huell 1875, “Jacobus Houbraken et Son Oeuvre”, Arnhem, p. 48, cat. no. 258); Muller II 1853 3049 (Frederik Muller 1853, Beschrijvende catalogus van 7000 Portretten, van Nederlanders”, Amsterdam, Muller, p. 146, cat. no. 2049a).

The British Museum offers a description of this print:

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3501605&partId=1&searchText=Houbraken+Kuiper&page=1

See also the description offered by the Rijksmuseum:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.126190

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression with wide margins laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in excellent condition for its considerable age (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, losses, abrasions, significant stains or foxing).

I am selling this very finely executed portrait of the Dutch centenarian, Jan Kuiper, nicknamed Jan Praktiseer—"Jan Practice” in translation from Dutch, which is not surprising to me since he had twenty-two children from two marriages—for AU$223 in total (currently US$154.23/EUR137.87/GBP117.20 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in acquiring this psychologically probing portrait—for instance, I see Kuiper’s right eye as if it were superficially “looking” at something on his right while his slightly tired left eye seeming to be internally “thinking” about what he is examining … but of course this is only a personal reading of the portrait—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.