Antwerp School, circa 1520

Lady Teale, England;
Dr Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, acquired after 1952.

Laren, 1966, no. 4 (as 'Jan de Beer').

Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 14, reproduced in colour p. 15.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine flat bevelled oak panel, which has clearly long been structurally secure and stable. There is a tiny even craquelure throughout, with a few minute corners of flakes lost long ago in some background areas leaving a sprinkling of little dark dots, for instance in the background wall behind the angel, and a brief vertical line of old tension although not an actual crack, behind the angel's wing on the far back wall, with a small darkened old retouching. Another tiny retouching is on the paving by the cat, with a very small, scarcely retouched old filling in the looped up bed curtain. Old superficial, more or less cosmetic retouching can faintly be seen lightly brushed patchily in parts of the back wall and coved ceiling, with some strengthening of the prie dieu behind the Virgin, and of the shadowy wall above behind the curtain, also of the capital of the pilaster behind the angel. Other tiny more recent cosmetic touches can be seen under ultra violet light in various places, occasionally muting the craquelure, for instance near the base edge, but with only one or two minute touches to the craquelure in the figures which are exceptionally well preserved. There may be slight old thickening perhaps with darker varnish of the deepest blue drapery and the shadows on the right of the angel's drapery, and the varnish generally is not recent. It is however still translucent and good. Apart from a trace of thinness in one or two places in the background for instance Mary's prie dieu, virtually throughout the glazing and fine detail remain perfect, and the overall condition is beautifully rich and intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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."

The old attribution to Jan de Beer is due to M.J. Friedländer, on the basis of similarities that he perceived with a work by the artist in the Thyssen collection, Madrid.  That work however (now relegated to Jan de Beer's Workshop), and other works by Jan de Beer are rather more exaggerated and Mannerist.

The present picture may rather be by a more sober Antwerp Master of around the same date.  A promising candidate would be The Master of the Antwerp Adoration, whose works have similarly shaped heads, attenuated fingers, and the characteristic large feet of the Angel.