Valerio Castello

J. Baptiste de Boyer, Seigneur d'Aiguilles, Aix en Provence, by 1709;
Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt.,Canons Park, Middlesex, by 1916, where it hung in the dining room (see fig. 3);
By descent to Roy Du Cros, from whom acquired by the husband of the late owner in 1959.

J. Coelemans, Receuil des plus beaux tableaux du Cabinet de Messire J.B. Boyer, seigneur d'Aiguilles, Conseilleur au Parlement d'Aix, Aix en Provence 1709, reproduced 2nd ed., 1744, plate XXXIII;
C. Manzitti, Valerio Castello, Genoa 1972, p. 134, no. 56, reproduced (engraving);
C. Manzitti, Valerio Castello, Turin 2004, p. 237, under C7 (listed under 'Lost works known through copies').

ENGRAVED
By J. Coelemans, 1709 (fig. 1).

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is generally stable but there are areas of instability with some minor recent losses, these are visible on the Madonna's blue mantle. Beneath an extremely degraded varnish can be seen areas of naturally thinned paint where the canvas texture has become prominent, these areas have been augmented to reduce this phenomenon and the restoration here is not only discoloured but excessive, notably, the sky and the clouds, the face, neck and left hand of the Madonna, the arm and torso of St. John and the face of Christ. Small paint loss to the Madonna's blue mantle has been replaced. Many areas are well preserved, however, where crisp details are uncompromised, the colours are unaffected and the paint texture is intact. Removal of the impenetrable varnish would prove to be worthwhile and rewarding. Offered in a gilt wood frame in good condition"
"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."

This masterpiece of seicento Genoese painting has only recently come to light, and had been previously known to scholars only through an engraving made in 1709 (fig. 1), and through two copies, one in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Aix en Provence, and another in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.¹  The painting is recorded as early as 1709, roughly fifty years after its execution, in the collection of a certain Jean-Baptiste Boyer. It therefore seems probable, as is the case with much of Castello's oeuvre, that the painting was originally commissioned by a Frenchman, probably from the south near the border with Italy, where he was well known.

This powerful composition is a tour-de-force of baroque design. The figures are arranged along a dominant diagonal and are executed with a vigorous brushwork that is typical of Valerio's maturity. The Madonna herself, her head thrown back over her left shoulder, reappears in the same pose in a Flight into Egypt, her attention caught by an angel behind rather than as here, by St. Joseph. The Flight, which Manzitti dates to the 1650s and of which two bozzetti exist, employs an equally dominant upper right to lower left diagonal so that a similar dating for the present work seems appropriate. It should also be closely compared to another Holy family with the infant St John the Baptist, of very similar dimensions and also dated by Manzitti to the 1650s, in a private collection.²

PROVENANCE
The painting was acquired by Howard Hartog, the late owner's husband, from Roy DuCros in 1959. Margaret Hartog was one of the great British concert pianists of the 20th century and is best known as Margaret Kitchin, the name from her first marriage. Born in Montreux in 1914 to an English mother, Kate Piercy, and a Swiss father, Othmar Rothen, Margaret was a musical child prodigy and attended the Montreux and Lausanne conservatories, before marrying Michael Kitchin, a British Council officer, in 1935. She is chiefly remembered for her association with  the great composer Sir Michael Tippett and his second sonata is dedicated to her. She became the BBC's concert pianist of choice for difficul pieces and toured extensively through Britain and abroad, permiering works for Thea Musgrave and Peter racine Fricker as well as Sir Michael Tippett. She was a champion of modern music, eschewing Chopin and Schumann for the music of contemporary composers. In 1977 she ceased playing, concentrating instead on her husband's business, the artist's agency Ingpen and Williams. 

1.  See C. Manzitti, 1972, p. 134, both reproduced.
2.  One in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, the other in a private collection, Genoa; Idem, pp. 186-88, nos. 105 & 106, both reproduced.