English: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 109:

Technical notes: The support consists of a single piece of coarsely woven plain weave fabric. Fragments of the tacking edges have been preserved. Broad cusping occurs along the lower edge and to a smaller extent along the top edge as well. The painting has probably retained its original height. The painting has been lined. The canvas was prepared with thick, evenly applied ground that completely covers the structure of the support. The ground seems to have been dark reddishbrown. The paint layer consists of single opaque layer that completely covers the underlying preparation. Simple painting technique. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1987.

Provenance: Purchase 1986 from Auktionsverket Stockholm, no. 597.

Exhibited: Börstorp, 1987.

This theme was treated by Jordaens around 1650.1 The original of this painting is in the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, there ascribed to Jordaens.2 The motif, which it has not been possible to identify, is probably taken from some classical literary source. It depicts an interior at night with a man moving uneasily in his bed while he stretches out his arms towards a naked young woman who seems to appear as a dream figure. Two figures with a candle are standing in the open doorway, while a stool with various bedroom utensils is toppled by the draught. The nude woman standing with her back towards the viewer recalls a similar motif by Jordaens – King Candaules of Lydia Showing his Wife to Gyges (no. 105). A fragmentary classical narrative that has also been proposed as the subject of this work is “The Corinthian Bride” in which a young woman returns to her home in ghostly form after her death.3

The original painting was referred to by a contemporary painter, Gerard de Lairesse, in 1666, a few years after Jordaens’ death. He was not certain what the motif was either.4 GCB

1 J. Held, Jordaens “Night Vision – A Rejoinder”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 25, 1962, pp. 131–134. 2 Jacob Jordaens, Nächtliche Erscheinung, oil on canvas, 133 x 144, inv. no. G 161. See Jan Brueghels Antwerpen. Die flämische Gemälde in Schwerin, Staatliches Museum Schwerin 2003, no. 31. 3 The textual basis of this interpretation has been proposed by E. Bielefeld, “Jordaens’ Night Vision”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 23, 1960, pp. 177–178.

4 See above Held 1962.[End]