Louis Finson

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 July 1986, lot 112, for £10,800;
With P. & D. Colnaghi Ltd., London, 1988, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Padua, Palazzo della Ragione. 25 March - 31 May 1990; Rome, Palazzo del Esposizioni, June-August 1990; Milan, Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente, September - October 1990; Rubens, pp. 230, no. 122, reproduced.

B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1989, p. 106, reproduced vol. III, plate 935.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined, with a horizontal seam along the bottom edge; the paint is flat and secure. There is a strip of recovered turn-over to the top edge with regular restored loss, denoting old tack holes, and a conserved horizontal stretcher mark with evidence of restored paint loss along it. The background paint is well preserved; under ultraviolet light a small scattering of restorations can be seen covering slight abrasion but the texture is intact. Restoration replacing minor paint loss can be seen to the figure of Bathsheba, to her face and chest, and to reduce dark cracking; similarly, her attendant has dark cracks reduced and replaced minor paint loss to her neck, shoulder and back. The restoration is excessive and conspicuous. A small restored damage to the left bicep of the river God can be detected. The foreground paint is in good condition. The varnish is degraded and discoloured and removing it would improve the tonality."
"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."

David and Bathsheba was painted by Finson in 1610 in Naples, where he was living in the apartment of another Fleming, Abraham Vinck. Only five other works are securely datable to his stay in Naples, from 1604 to 1612; the Resurrection in St.-Jean de Late, Aix-en-Provence of 1610; two Annunciations of 1612 (Naples, Capodimonte and Avignon, Musée Théodore-Aubanel); a portrait of Livio Greco of 1608 and another of Carlo Maiorana di Troiana of 1612. After 1612 he travelled extensively through southern France, with prolonged stays in Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Montpellier and Bordeaux, before moving north to Paris and finally to Amsterdam in 1616, where he lodged again with Abraham Vinck, and where he died the following year.