Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
The Alchemist |
Object Name |
Painting |
Object ID |
FA 2000.003.002 |
Description |
A bearded, seated alchemist, wearing glasses and bright red shirt, bends over an open book on a desk stacked high with a mess of papers and glassware. The trail of books continues to the ground with broken and unbroken crockery, a large copper pan, firewood, and loose strands of straw. At the left middle ground two men work at a table, while behind them a man stands by a large furnace and pours the contents from one vessel into another. Further back, three workshop assistants stand near a small furnace, watching a pot as it heats. |
Artist |
van Helmont, Mattheus |
Date |
1600s |
Dimensions |
H-16.5 W-22.5 inches |
Material |
Oil Paint, Canvas |
Medium |
Painting |
Collection |
Eddleman Collection |
Search Terms |
Alchemists Alchemy Laboratories Painting Philosophy Seventeenth century |
Provenance |
(sale, Christies, London, 8 July 1994, lot 142.) Alfred Bader, Milwaukee, by October 1994. [1] Roy Eddleman, before 2001 (from Bader). The Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2001 (from Eddleman/Spectrum). Notes: [1] A restoration record indicates that Bader paid for treatment of the painting in October 1994 and thus the painting must have been in his care by that date. |