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Artist

Michael Sweerts

Year
Brussels 1618 - 1664 Goa
Price range
500,000 – 3,000,000 USD
The enigmatic artist Michael Sweerts (also spelt Michiel) is recognized for his marked individuality and an adventurous career spanning from the Low Countries to Rome, Paris, and the Far East.

Undoubtedly one of the most highly sought-after artists from the 17th century today, Sweerts is best known for painting life on the fringes of society in Rome, dandies, artist studios, exotic Oriental characters, bathers and wrestlers. His distinctive use of shimmering whites and a penchant for haunting spotlit scenes evoke a silent lyricism which has a parallel in that of Vermeer. Forgotten soon after his death, an interest in Sweerts resurged in the early 20th century with the publication of Willhelm Martin’s 1907 study calling him the ‘Dutch Le Nain’. Curiously, Sweerts’s Draughts Players was owned by the Victorian painter John Everett Millais before this moment of renewed scholarly attention.

Sweerts was born into an influential aristocratic family in Brussels around 1618, but little is known about his life until his move, in 1643, to Rome where he spent the next ten years. From 1646–51 he took up residence on via Margutta, which was popular with the expat community of Northern European artists and patrons. Not only did Sweerts paint portraits and other works for local patricians and Dutch Grand Tourists such as the Amsterdam-born Deutz Brothers, even acting as their agent in acquiring artworks, he was also usually successful in painting for the market. Sweerts drew inspiration from the streets of Rome, capturing drinkers, artisans, gamblers and prostitutes alike with compassion and dignity, in contrast to the lighthearted approach of Pieter van Laer and his followers, known as the ‘Bamboccianti’. His Seven Acts of Mercy series, dating between 1646-49, exemplify his unique ability to infuse everyday subjects with remarkable pathos and the solemn monumentality of classical art.

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Selected artworks
Market

Top 3 auction prices

2,181,132 $
2023
3,852,500 $
1997
16,043,495 $
2023

Details

The sales are: Christie’s London – 7 December 2023 lot 10 (1,734,000 GBP), Sotheby’s New York – 30 January 1997 lot 34 (Plague in an Ancient City, now in the collection of LACMA), and Christie’s London – 6 July 2023 lot 6 (12,615,000 GBP).
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Further Reading

Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Michael Sweerts (1618–1664): Shaping the Artist and the Academy in Rome and Brussels (Pictura Nova XXI). Turnhout, 2015.

Guido Jansen and Peter C. Sutton, eds., Michael Sweerts (1618–1644), exh. cat. Zwolle, 2002.

Rolf Kultzen, Michael Sweerts: Brussels 1618–Goa 1664, Ghent, 1996.

Rolf Kultzen, ‘Französische Anklänge im Werk von Michael Sweerts’, in Anne-Marie Logan, ed., Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on his Sixtieth Birthday, Doornspijk, 1983.

Wilhelm Martin, ‘Michiel Sweerts als schilder. Proeve van een Biografie en een Catalogus van zijn schilderijen’, Oud Holland 25, 1907, pp. 133-56.

Notable Exhibitions

Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Michael Sweerts: Realità e misteri nella Roma del Seicento, 7 November 2024 – 18 January 2025. Curated by Andrea de Marchi and Claudio Seccaroni.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Michael Sweerts, 1618-1664, 9 March – 20 May 2002; travelled to San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 15 June – 25 August 2002; travelled to Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 20 September – 1 December 2002. Curated by Guido Jansen and Peter C. Sutton.

Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Michael Sweerts e i bamboccianti, 6 December – 8 February 1959.

Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Michael Sweerts en Tijdgenoten, 4 October – 23 November 1958.

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