Public Treasures: A Netherlandish Altarpiece Takes Pride of Place

Acquired through a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s, The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret is a triumph of late medieval painting – and one of the National Gallery’s most significant recent additions. Unseen by the public for over 60 years, the early 16th-century altarpiece is a work of extraordinary quality that not only dazzles with detail but is gleefully unconventional in its iconography. From the sumptuously clad figure of St. Margaret emerging unscathed from the back of a particularly fearsome dragon to the angel incongruously playing a mouth harp and the numerous figures on the capitals of the columns, including a mooning child, the painting is a visual feast.

Yet for all its alluring detail and craftsmanship, it is a captivating enigma. The panel was likely painted in the Netherlands and shows the influence of artists such as Van Eyck, but its author seems also to have been familiar with contemporary French painting. For now, the identity of the painter of this remarkable work remains a tantalizing mystery.

In an art world that often centers on attribution, this work invites a different kind of attention: one focused on imagination, eccentricity and discovery. And it underlines the fact that the lack of knowledge of the authorship of a truly great work of art takes nothing away from the sense of sheer wonder that it can bring to the viewer.

– Alexander Bell, Chairman Emeritus, Old Masters

A jewel of Elizabethan portraiture, Nicholas Hilliard’s Portrait of an Unknown Girl, Aged 10 (1609) now resides at the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of the artist’s final works, painted in the last decade of his life, the miniature is a technical and emotional tour de force. Hilliard’s signature flat brilliance gives way to a subtle play of shadow and depth – evidence of his late-career willingness to experiment, perhaps influenced by his pupil Isaac Oliver.

The unknown sitter, radiant in a purple gown and golden embroidery, has long stirred speculation. Her fine dress suggests aristocratic lineage – perhaps even the daughter of a royal patron – although some once believed she might be the artist’s own granddaughter. In rare pristine condition, the painting preserves the vibrancy of its colors, the impasto of its lace ruff and even the sheen of its original gold calligraphy.

Acquired through an Acceptance in Lieu of Tax (AIL) agreement brokered by Sotheby’s Tax, Heritage & UK Museums program, the portrait now anchors the V&A’s holdings in Tudor and Stuart miniature painting. The portrait is a time capsule of early 17th-century English elegance – small in scale, immense in cultural weight.

– Mark Griffith-Jones, VP Specialist, Sotheby’s London

In a homecoming both literal and symbolic, Allan Ramsay’s 1745 portrait of Wills Hill, First Earl of Hillsborough, has returned to Hillsborough Castle, where the “Black Earl” served as commander.

The sitter – an influential Anglo-Irish politician and architect of the British response to the American colonies – was painted at the dawn of his political ascent, just three years after inheriting his title. Ramsay, one of the Enlightenment’s most gifted portraitists, depicts Hill with poise and intensity, framed in a glowing red ground and painted with confident impasto.

The portrait is believed to be the first serious likeness of Hill, capturing him in his role as MP for Warwick and future Secretary of State for the Colonies. Hill’s resistance to American independence, his hosting of Benjamin Franklin and his transformation of Hillsborough Castle into a Georgian seat of power all reflect a complex legacy now preserved on canvas.

Now on display at Hillsborough Castle following an AIL negotiate by Sotheby’s, the portrait reconnects place and subject, anchoring the story of the building’s most consequential modern patron.

– Julian Gascoigne, SVP Senior Specialist, British Paintings

The Ashmolean Museum has welcomed two extraordinary paintings into its collection via the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme: Paolo Veronese’s Adoration of the Shepherds and Aert van der Neer’s Winter Landscape with Skaters. Each represents a pinnacle of its genre – Venetian devotional grandeur and Dutch winter landscape, respectively.

Veronese’s intimate nativity scene, once owned by Cardinal Mazarin and viewed by Bernini, is a study in dramatic tenderness: the Virgin unveils the Christ Child to a group of shepherds, rendered with startling foreshortening and chromatic brilliance. Painted in the early 1560s, it bridges the artist’s early altarpieces and his grand mythological cycles – yet stands alone in its emotional intimacy and painterly control.

Van der Neer’s canvas, by contrast, sprawls with winter vitality. Skaters, fishermen and games of colf animate a frozen river beneath a dusky sky, each figure modeled with restraint and clarity. One of the largest and best-preserved of the artist’s rare wintertjes, it evokes the sensory quiet of a Dutch winter’s day.

Together, the paintings enrich the Ashmolean’s holdings in Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age art – and join the list of masterworks entering public collections through Sotheby’s.

– Alexander Bell, Chairman Emeritus, Old Masters

A singular collection of 16 Chinese export watercolor albums – comprising 643 individual works – has been acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Created in Canton during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these illustrations span botanical studies, bird and insect renderings, landscapes, costumes and maritime scenes. They combine the delicacy of classical Chinese brushwork with a precision suited to European collectors of natural history.

Long held in private hands and previously unstudied, the albums represent an extraordinary survival of Qing-era export art. Their preservation in original bindings, consistent quality across hands and schools and sheer volume set them apart from anything previously offered on the open market.

With Sotheby’s stewarding their transition to a public institution via the acceptance in lieu scheme, the albums open a rare window into the aesthetics, ecosystems and global exchanges of their time. They are not only beautiful but invaluable – each page a record of shared curiosity between East and West.

– David Goldthorpe, EMEA Head of Department, Books and Manuscripts