Laurent Meeus (1872–1950); Brussels
From whom acquired by the father of the present owners.
Brussels, Galerie Robert Finck, 1955 (as by Frans Francken the Younger).
M. Diaz-Pedròn,
Museo del Prado Catálogo de Pinturas I. Escuela Flamenca Siglo XVII, Madrid 1975, vol. I, pp. 380–81, under no. 1405 (as by Adriaen van Stalbemt);
A. Scarpa Sonino, Cabinet D'Amateur, Milan 1992, p. 37;
M. Diaz-Pedròn and M. Royo-Villanova, David Teniers, Jan Brueghel y los gabinetes de pinturas, Madrid 1992, p. 199;
S. Speth-Holterhoff, Les peintres flamands de cabinets d'amateurs aux XVIIe siècle, 1957, p. 69.
The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's:
Structural Condition
The artist's panel has three horizontal strips of canvas which run across the width of the panel and two shorter strips of canvas all of which have been applied to secure cracks or joins in the panel.
The lower of the horizontal cracks is slightly open and runs from the left vertical edge through the seated dog towards the standing figures in the centre of the composition. This crack is approximately 57 cm in length and should be further secured. The other joins or cracks are visible in raking light.
Paint Surface
The paint surface has very uneven and discoloured varnish layers and should respond very well to cleaning.
Inspection under ultra-violet light confirms how discoloured the varnish layers have become and shows lines of retouching along the horizontal joins and cracks in the panel and other small scattered retouchings, including a vertical line on the upper left framing edge and retouchings in the brown door just to the left of the figure walking through the door on the right of the composition.
Due to the discoloured and opaque varnish layers it is difficult to be certain as to how much retouching has been applied in the past and there may be other retouchings which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light, but I would not expect to find any significant retouching and it is encouraging to note that the fine details of the painting appear to be well preserved.
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in essentially good and stable condition and would benefit from structural consolidation of the one open split mentioned above and from cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"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 cabinet depicted has not been identified and is likely to be imaginary or perhaps an allegory of the arts and sciences. The composition is known in four other versions. The first is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid;
1 another was with Galerie Kugel in Paris in 1988;
a third was recorded in the Hawkins Collection in London in 1951;
2 and a fourth was formerly with Galerie de Jonckheere in Paris in 2002. Those in Madrid and formerly in Paris were both attributed to Adriaen van Stalbemt (1580–1662). A very similar composition with an identical interior, but including the figure group of Archdukes Albert and Isabella and their animals in the centre foreground, is in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (fig. 1).
3 Like the present panel, this too was formerly considered to be the work of Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642). Most recently Klaus Ertz has also attributed this version to Adriaen van Stalbemt, and suggested that the still life elements are the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625).
The attribution to Stalbemt for this group of cabinet interiors seems difficult to sustain, for no comparable works by his hand seem to have survived, and his figure style is quite different. Ursula Härting has more plausibly suggested an attribution for this group to Hieronymous Francken II, the elder brother of Frans Francken the Younger. This attribution is based upon Francken's Interior of the Gallery of Jan Snellinck, now in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, which is inscribed and dated 1621.4 As the Archduke Albert himself died that same year, the Baltimore picture may precede that date, unless the figures were added for commemorative purposes shortly thereafter. The two tall elegant figures that are shown discussing a painting in the foreground of the present work recur in two other closely related cabinet interiors in this group, which Härting also attributed to Hieronymous, respectively in Brussels and Helsinki, Sinebrychoff Museum.5 As the former displays Rubens' Bacchanal of 1623 in the foreground, she accordingly suggests a possible dating for the group around 1621–24. The staffage in all of these interiors is most probably the work of as yet unidentified figure painters.
1. Inv. no. 1.405, panel, 93 by 114 cm. See Díaz Pedron, Literature,1975, vol. II, reproduced plate 251. The Prado also possesses a reduced replica of the lower right hand corner of the composition (inv. 1437).
2. Panel, 91 by 122 cm. See Diaz-Pedròn and Royo-Villanova under Literature, 1992, p. 199. The size of the latter is not known. According to Diaz-Pedròn it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1951.
3. Inv. no. 37.2010, panel, 94 by 123.3 cm. See, for example, K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Lingen 2008–10, Vol. III, p. 1371, cat. no. 602, reproduced.
4. U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581–1642), Freren 1989, p. 177–78, reproduced fig. 154.
5. Härting, op. cit., 1989, reproduced figs 155 and 156.
