The seventeenth-century artist Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677) was a highly sought after portraitist and famous in his own time, but fell into obscurity. At least, with the general public. Among connoisseurs and artists, Vaillant remained known for his versatility: he practiced various techniques and captured different layers of Amsterdam’s population in his paintings, drawings, and prints. He employed diverse techniques and was a pioneer of the new graphic technique, mezzotint. With the exhibition Versatile Virtuoso – Wallerant Vaillant in Amsterdam Museum Van Loon brings this artist’s artist out of obscurity and showcases his impressive and multifaceted work to the public.
Born in Lille, the artist came to Amsterdam in 1643 after training in Antwerp. Like so many in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Vaillant was an immigrant. He quickly made a name for himself as a portraitist, but he also explored the latest graphic techniques and became one of the pioneers of mezzotint, an innovative technique also known as black art. His progressive use of this technique makes him a great name in printmaking to this day.
Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677),Portrait of Emmerentia van Loon – Van Veen, 1667
Museum Van Loon., Amsterdam
Museum Van Loon has five painted portraits by Vaillant in its collection. These works are complemented in this exhibition by works from leading (inter)national collections: Kunsthalle Bremen, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Rijksmuseum, Groninger Museum, Teylers Museum, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Bonnefanten and Gemeentemuseum Arnhem. It offers a unique opportunity to see Vaillant’s work together, to compare techniques and to get an idea of his special and often warm, intimate touch.
The exhibition, curated in collaboration with portrait specialists Rudi Ekkart and Claire van den Donk, is the first in the Netherlands to bring Vaillant’s work to a wide audience. Vaillant is not the first artist to be revisited by Museum Van Loon: the museum has previously organized exhibitions on Adolf Pirsch (1858-1929), Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Thérèse Schwartze (1851-1918) and Adriaan de Lelie (1755-1820).