''The St Adrian Civic Guard'' is a 1612 militia group portrait painting by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

artist Cornelis Engelsz. It is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, France. Its inventory number is 364.
The painting was bought from

Charles Sedelmeyer Charles Sedelmeyer (30 April 1837, Vienna – 9 August 1925, Paris) was an Austrian and French art dealer, collector, and publisher active in Paris from 1866, with premises at 6 rue de la Rochefoucauld. He is credited with popularising the Dutch ...

in 1895 by the director of the Strasbourg museum,

Wilhelm von Bode Wilhelm von Bode (10 December 1845 – 1 March 1929) was a German art historian and museum curator. Born Arnold Wilhelm Bode in Calvörde, he was ennobled in 1913. He was the creator and first curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, now calle ...

, and entered the collections two years later. As of 2014, it was the only Dutch painting of that kind (''schuttersstuk''; English: "militia piece") in a French museum. The painting depicts a

banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

of 46 men in arms from the voluntary civic guard of

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

. The scene takes place in the civic guard meeting hall, and that is where the painting probably used to hang until the 18th century. One of these faces is supposed to be a

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

of Engelsz. Due to its size – ''The St Adrian Civic Guard'' is by far the largest

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

painting in the Strasbourg collection – the painting could not be evacuated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was severely damaged when Palais Rohan was hit during an Anglo-American

bombing raid Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematic ...

on 11 August 1944. Poor post-war restoration work made the damage even worse, and Engelsz.' painting disappeared from sight until late 2008, when a partnership was launched between the museum and

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

in order to restore it for good. After five years of work, the restored painting was then revealed to the public in early 2014. The style of the painting is inspired by

Cornelis van Haarlem Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562 – 11 November 1638) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in the Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist. Biograph ...

and does seem archaic next to

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

's ''

The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 ''The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616'' refers to the first of several large schutterstukken painted by Frans Hals for the St. George (or St. Joris) civic guard of Haarlem, and today is considered one of the main ...

'', which revolutionized the genre by its liveliness and dynamism. Following that example, Engelsz.' next ''schuttersstuk'', ''The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1618'' (in the collection of the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...

), would then look nothing like the Strasbourg painting.

Details

La Garde civique de Saint-Adrien Cornelis Engelsz 1612 - détail -3.jpg La Garde civique de Saint-Adrien Cornelis Engelsz 1612 - détail -5.jpg La Garde civique de Saint-Adrien Cornelis Engelsz 1612 - détail -6.jpg Cornelis Engelsz. autportrait 1612.jpg, Supposed self-portrait

References

External links

''Engelsz, une restauration monumentale''
presentation of the painting and its restoration on the museum's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Adrian Civic Guard, The Paintings in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg 1612 paintings Militia group portraits Dutch Golden Age paintings Oil on canvas paintings