(Nijmegen 1614–1669 Amsterdam)
The Flight into Egypt,
signed lower left: StockAde . I,
oil on canvas, 59.5 x 75.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Mme. Hélène Nicolette Wellens (née Geelhand), sale, Antwerp, 21st August 1810, lot 32;
bought by Baron Henri-Joseph Stier-d’Aertselaer;
sale, Bincken, Antwerp, 29th July 1822, lot 56;
bought by Demarneuf

Born in 1614 in Nijmegen, Nicolaes van Helt, called Stockade, is believed to have learnt his trade in the studio of David Ryckaert the Elder. In 1635 he left Nijmegen and travelled to Rome, where he became a member of the ‘Bentvueghels’ (‘Birds of a Feather’), which was a society of Dutch and Flemish artists. The society gave him the nickname of ‘Stocade’ (dagger), and from this point onwards he began to sign his name in a variety of different ways including: ‘Stocade’, ‘Helt de Stocade’, and ‘N.V. Helt, alias Stockade’. Van Helt left Italy and had arrived in Paris by 1637, where he was appointed court painter to King Louis XIII and was even commissioned to paint for Queen Christina of Sweden. We know that he was in Lyon by 1645 and married Johanna Houweart there, who was the sister of the woman who later married the landscape painter Jan Asselijn. There are records that he was a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp in 1646 and that he returned to his birth town of Nijmegen for a short while in 1652. He eventually settled in Amsterdam and stayed there until his death in 1669.

Van Helt was a celebrated and successful artist during his lifetime and was best known for his mythological and biblical subjects, as well as his portraits. His success was such that in 1649 Prince William II of Orange commissioned him to paint pictures for his hunting lodge at Dieren, and he assisted with the decoration of the new town hall in Amsterdam, which today is the Royal Palace. Van Helt’s works are relatively rare, but some can be found in museums such as the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

The Flight into Egypt, which is depicted in the present painting and shows the Holy Family being transported in a boat, was a favoured subject during the 17th century. It was particularly popular in Italy, with artists such as Luca Giordano, Nicolas Poussin, and Ludovico and Annibale Carracci choosing to illustrate the story in their works. In an article by Oreste Ferrari entitled ‘Drawings by Luca Giordano in the British Museum’, which was written for the Burlington Magazine and published in June 1966 (vol. 108, no. 759, p. 302, n.13), Ferrari suggests that the subject alludes to Death and the Passion, and the journey across the water is said to be reminiscent of the crossing of the River Styx.

The present painting has been dated to around 1655 by Jelka van der Velden, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Van Helt in 1993 at the Katholieke Universiteit in Nijmegen. This means that it was painted at a similar time to Van Helt’s Joseph in Egypt, which is currently located in the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and is signed and dated 1656 (written communication, April 1993).