Prague School, late 16th Century

Jan Šembera of Bučovice, later Baron of Boskowitz and Schwarzenberg;
possibly the Princes Festetics de Tolna;
William, 12th Duke of Hamilton (1845-1895), Brodick Castle, Arran,
by descent to his daughter, Lady Mary Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Montrose,
thence by descent to the present owner

Stuck to backing in top corners. Very slightly rubbed and stained in the corners, but otherwise exceptionally good condition. Sold in a 19th-century carved and gilded frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This striking image of a lavishly attired young page or groom calmly holding the bridle of a rearing horse, with a stormy landscape behind, can be located rather precisely in terms of the time and place of its execution, but despite its extraordinary quality, its authorship remains unknown.  It, and also lot 9, clearly relate to a very similar gouache on vellum in the Albertina, Vienna (fig. 1)¹, which was until now thought to be unique, but which must have the same origin as the present two gouaches, and perhaps others too.  The traces of holes from stitching, to be seen at the bottom edge of the present work, also indicate that these spectacular gouaches must once have been bound into an album. 

Recent research has shown that the horse depicted in the Vienna gouache bears the coat of arms of the Moravian aristocrat, Jan Šembera of Bučovice, as a breeder's brand.  Šembera became Baron of Boskowitz and Schwarzenberg in 1584, and the gouaches must therefore date from the short period between that year and Šembera's death in 1597.  Though much less well preserved than the present two, newly discovered gouaches, the one in the Albertina is surely by the same hand, and in conception and composition, the link is undeniable.  Most strikingly, although the features and dark colouring clearly indicate that the actual boy depicted in the Vienna gouache is not the same blonde, blue-eyed lad seen here, both wear exactly the same extravagant costume, with its extensive embroidery in gold and silver, its large tassels, and bejewelled gold ornaments with stylised faces, worn at the neck and ankles.  Were it not for the fact that Jan Šembera is supposed to have died without a male heir, one might have concluded that these were his own sons.  The handling and tonality in the landscape is also very comparable in all three works, and certain specific motifs, such as the blasted tree-stump in lot 9, recur, but the seemingly symbolic storm clouds, lightning bolt and rain of gold in the present composition are not paralleled in the other two, both of which are much more straightforward iconographically.  Lastly, the similarity also extends to the size of the sheets of vellum that the artist used: although the Albertina gouache is larger than the other two, it is composed of two joined sheets of vellum, and the larger, main sheet is almost identical in dimensions to the two newly discovered works from the Montrose Collection.

Upon his elevation, one of the first things the new Baron Boskowitz did was to commission a grand Renaissance palace near Brno, in Moravia.  He is known to have been a great horse-lover, and may even have built an indoor riding school in his new palace, which was decorated throughout with immense equestrian portraits of a mixture of historical and mythological figures, both painted and sculpted.  Alongside images of this type, there was also a well-established 16th-century tradition of portraits of favourite horses, into which the present exceptional works, painted like giant miniatures, clearly fit.  It is interesting to note the differences in the types of horses depicted in each of these three 'portraits.'  The Albertina gouache shows a great, black war-horse.  The rather skittish, rearing grey seen here is, however, much lighter in build, closely resembling the famous Lipizzan horses, a breed created only a few years earlier by interbreeding prized Spanish horses with Arab bloodlines, and used ever since at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, which had been established in 1572.  The third gouache shows a majestic, tethered, dappled-grey stallion, generally close in form to the other Montrose horse, but slightly stockier in build.

In 1928, Otto Benesch proposed that the Albertina gouache was by Joris Hoefnagel, and Ernst Kris later suggested an alternative attribution to that artist's son, Jacob, but neither suggestion can be sustained.  The gouaches must, instead, be by one of the other highly accomplished artists working in and around the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II at the end of the 16th century, and they are a suberb reminder of the level of sophistication and technical ability attained by so many of the artists at the Rudolfine Court. 

It is intriguing to consider how these quintessentially Central European works might have ended up in the Duke of Hamilton's collection in Scotland in the 19th century.  One possible route is as a result of the marriage on 2 June 1880 between the sister of the 12th Duke of Hamilton and the Hungarian Prince Tassilo Festetics de Tolna; this theory must, however, remain unproven, although the presence on the reverse of mid-to-late 19th-century labels from a Paris framer does indicate that the works did not come to Britain at an early date.

We are most grateful to Dr. Thea Vignau-Wilberg for her kind assistance in the cataloguing of this work.

1.  Inv. 13583; Bosch Brueghel Rubens Rembrandt, Masterpieces of the Albertina, exhib. cat., Vienna, Albertina, 2013, no. 73