Circle of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Circa 1640

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Description

Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Portrait of the Duchess of Ferrara (1564-1618)
inscribed Alla Serma mia... Colma Madam Duchesa di Ferrara
oil on canvas

Provenance

Lieut. Col. Sir Audley D. Neeld, Bt.;
Alexander Gordon, Esq.;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 13 July, 1945, lot 43 (as Titian);
With Central Picture Galleries, New York (as Titian), by whom sold to
Marc and Lillian Rojtman on November 22, 1959 (as Titian)

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1912, p. 31, no. 109;
St. Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Winter Exhibition, 1968 (as by Alonso Sanchez Coello)

Literature

F. Huemer, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Portraits, Part XIX, Vol. I, London, p. 129, cat. no. 16, under note no. 1(as Pourbus and his environment);
Pharos, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1969, vol. VI, no. 4

Catalogue Note

In a 19th Century Italian frame.

The present portrait relates closely to a portrait of Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Ferrara by Rubens in the collection of Dr. J. Bruppacher, Zurich (for illus. see Frances Huemer, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Portraits, Part XIX, Vol. I, London, p. 129, cat. no. 16, illus. fig. 66). When this picture was sold by Christie's in 1945, as Titian, Ludwig Burchard noted the similarity to and influence of the Rubens portrait in a private collection in Zurich and suggested for this version an attribution to an artist in the environment of Frans Pourbus.

The present painting is accompanied by a photocertificate from Pallucchini dated September 1959, attributing the picture to Titian.