Louis Finson

H.H. Gann, 9 Clarence Sq., Brighton, 1923;
Anonymous sale, London, Puttick and Simpson, 26 June 1930, lot 100;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 June 1937, lot 135;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Christie's, 30 November 1973, lot 103;
With Brian Sewell, London;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Christie's, 16 December 1988, lot 69;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 7 July 2004, lot 40, when accquired by the present owner

Marseilles, La Peinture en Provence au XVIIe Siècle, July - October 1978.
London, Robilant and Voena, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, 2005.
Aricci, Palazzo Chigi, La "Schola" del Caravaggio. Dipinti dalla Collezione Koelliker, Ariccia 13 October 2006- 11 February 2007, pp. 276-277, cat. no. 84, reproduced in colour.

Advertisment for H.H. Gann in Connoisseur, vol. LXXI, May 1923, p. XLIII;
G. Isarlo, Caravage et le Caravagisme Européen, Aix-en-Provence 1941, p. 136;
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres..., vol. III, Paris 1950, p. 758;
W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. IV, Munich 1962, note before plate 84;
J. Bousquet, La Peinture Manièriste, Neuchâtel 1964, p. 334; 
D. Bodart, Louis Finson, Brussels 1970, pp. 32, 70 and pp. 129-30, no. 14, reproduced fig. 29;
A. Moir, Caravaggio and his Copyists, New York 1976, p. 134, no. 47iii, reproduced fig. 112;
M.C. Leonelli et al., La Peinture en Provence au XVIIe Siècle, exhibition catalogue, Marseilles 1978, p. 177, reproduced;
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford 1979, pp. 48, 234;
B. Nicolson (rev. L. Vertova), Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1990, p. 106, reproduced vol. III, fig. 942;
J. Bikker in Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London 2005, pp. 38-41;
La "Schola" del Caravaggio. Dipinti dalla Collezione Koelliker, Milan 2006, cat. no, 84, pp. 276-277, reproduced in colour.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is made up of three planks and has received extensive conservation treatment in the past to alleviate vertical splitting which is visible on the surface. There is slight movement along some of these splits, with accompanying paint fragility, and evidence of past restoration along the joins and the splits. Elsewhere the paint layer is stable. The vertical wood grain has become more obvious in the flesh tones and in isolated areas of the background, with the passage of time, and these have been reduced. The shadow beneath David's right arm has been strengthened. Aside from the splits, the general condition overall is good. The painting has been cleaned and restored recently and the varnish is not discoloured. Offered in a part painted, part gilt frame with some damages."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Finson's tragically short life was to end in Amsterdam at the beginning of September 1617, in the house of his friend, the painter and art dealer Abraham Vinck. An isolated outbreak of the Plague had gripped the city that year, and most likely carried away the young painter with it, but in his short life Finson had played a major role in the Northern Caravaggesque movement.

Little is known of the early years of Finson's life; he was born into a family of painters, sometime before 1580, and was to study under his father Jacques Finson, a painter of decorations in Bruges. He travelled to Italy circa 1600, most likely arriving first in Rome before going to the largest and most populous city in Italy - Naples, where he is recorded from 1604-13. Although he was probably first acquainted with Caravaggio's ground breaking and innovative naturalism in Rome, it is in Naples that he was to truly explore this new style. Unusually amongst the followers of Caravaggio, and probably uniquely amongst the northern followers, Finson must have been personally acquainted with the tempestuous genius when Caravaggio was sojourning in Naples between 1606-7 and 1609-10. It has even been conjectured that Finson may have been a pupil of Caravaggio's, although there is no evidence to support this. What is clear is that Finson was to totally immerse himself in Caravaggio's style; he owned several pictures by Caravaggio (including the Madonna of the Rosary in the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna) and apparently painted numerous copies after him. The present work was almost certainly painted during this period in Naples and shows a clear knowledge of Caravaggio's David with the head of Goliath in the Galleria Borghese (circa 1609). The present work was probably executed shortly after this, at a similar time to the artist's Four Elements, dated 1611, which was sold Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 10 May 2005, lot 92, for 420,000 euros.  The figure to the left has been tentatively identified as a self portrait ¹ and may be compared to the self portraits preserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles.

1. J. Bikker, under Literature, p. 38.