Pieter Fransz. de Grebber

Private Collection, USA.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable and secure, although slightly raised in places. A horizontal stretcher mark is visible through the centre of the composition. There has been some minor paint loss to the lower half of King David’s cloak, and this has been filled and restored out. Elsewhere throughout the surface, but more particularly to the green dress of Abishag and to the faces of the figures, a degree of past injudicious cleaning has taken place leading to a thinning and abrading of the paint. Fine scumbles and glazes have been compromised and the facial features of the figures have lost definition as has Abishag’s dress where the ground colour is evident along with the canvas weave. These areas have been augmented. Much of the paint surface is well preserved, however, with texture and impasto intact and the colours still vibrant. The varnish has degraded and saturation of the paint surface has been lost. Removing the varnish would improve the tonal quality. Offered in a part gilt, part painted 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."

We are grateful to Dr. Peter Sutton and Dr. Bernard Schnackenburg for endorsing the attribution, after first-hand inspection and on the basis of photographs respectively.  Dr. Sutton will publish the work in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.

We are also grateful to Dr. Schnackenburg for identifying the subject. He points out that the same model used by De Grebber for Abishag appears in a signed panel by him, a roundel of a Singing girl in the National Museum in Stockholm.¹ The traditional theme of the confrontation of youth and old age was addressed by De Grebber in another painting of similar date, the Ruth and Naomi of 1628 now in an American private collection, and Dr. Schnackenburg suggests a similar date of execution for this painting.²

1. Inv. no. NM 439. G. Cavalli-Björkman, Dutch and Flemish Paintings, vol. II, Dutch Paintings c.1600-c.1800, Stockholm 2005, p. 212, no. 211.
2. B. Schnackenburg, "Jan Lievens und Pieter de Grebber", in Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, 2007, p. 210, reproduced fig. 29.