Huybrecht Beuckelaer

With Colnaghi & Eckford, London, by whom sold to;
Henry Burgh, Cheltenham, at whose sale acquired by;
George Pearse, Cheltenham, a Major in the Royal Artillery, by June 1869 (according to note written by him and attached to the reverse);
Anonymous sale, Berlin, Lepke, March 22nd, 1910, lot 49 (as by Beukeleer);
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, April 25th, 1911, lot 77 (as by The Monogrammist HB);
Dr. Rudolf Berl (1884-1963), an industrialist who lived in the Palais Rudolf Gutmann, Vienna, until 1939;
Transported from Austria after the Anschluss by the Dutch merchant, Job Thole, to Huizen, near Amsterdam, whence collected by Berl's agent in the Netherlands, Alfred Seidl, and deposited for storage with Ulrix, Brussels;
Acquired from Ulrix by Kayetan Mühlman on October 21st, 1941 and transported to Berlin by December (vide Mühlmann's label on the reverse);
Sold by Mülhmann to Field Marshal Hermann Göring for RM 3,200 on December 6th, 1941 and deposited in Carinhall, Göring's residence;
Captured with the rest of Göring's collection in a train by American troops and taken to the Munich Collecting Point, whence moved to the Netherlands in 1946-7;
The Instituut Collectie Nederland (earlier the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, no. NK 2646) until restituted to Dr. Berl's heir in 2002;
By whom sold ("Property of the Heirs of the Late Dr. Rudolf Berl"), New York, Sotheby's, 26 May 2005, lot 61;
There purchased by the present collector.

Roosendaal, Roosendaal Museum, from 1949, on loan until returned to the Hague in 1975;
's-Hertogenbosh, Noordbrabants Museum, no. 172, on loan from the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit;
Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, on loan from the Instituut Collectie Nederland and included in the Museum's exhibition, Het 'glijk van de achterkant, 1999, no. 30.

J. Sievers, "Joachim Beuckelaer", Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 32, 1911, p. 185ff (as Joachim Buckelaer);
The H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, "Pieter Aertsen en Joachim Beuckelaer en hun ontleeningen aan Serlio's architectuurprenten", Oud Holland, 62, 1947, p. 130, fig. 8 (as Joachim Beuckelaer);
D. Kreidl, "Joachim Beuckelaer und die Monogrammist HB", Oud Holland, 90, 1976, p. 162ff (as the Monogrammist HB);
D. Kreidl, "Der Monogrammist HB, Ein Niederländer in der Bronzino Werkstatt", Wiener Jahrbrüch der Kunstgeschichte, 34, 1981, pp. 165ff (as the Monogrammist HB);
Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, Old Master Paintings, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, 1992, p. 39 (as Joachim Beuckelaer);
M. Wolters, "De Monogrammist HB geidentificeerd: Huybrecht Beuckeleer", Album Discipulorum J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, 1997, pp. 231 and 236, note 2;
R. van Wegen, catalogue of the exhibition, Het 'Gelijk' van de Achterkant, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 1999, no. 3 (as Huybrecht Beuckeleer);
Die Kunstsammlung des Reichsmarschalls Hermann Göring by Guenther Haase, Edition q, 2000, p. 278 (listed in inventory of property seized from Göring by the US Army on 4 August 1945, as "Beukelaar, Joachim, Easter Feast, (Muhlmann Coll., Berlin Dec 1941) (KG-887)";
J. Bruyn, "Hubert (Huybrecht) Beyckelaer, an Antwerp portrait, and his English patron, the Earl of Leicester", Juliette Roding and Eric Jan Sluijter, Dutch and Flemish artists in Britain 1550-1750, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 13, 2003, pp. 85-112.

The panel is comprised of four pieces of wood brought together by three vertical joins with butterfly supports. Small retouches are visible under UV along the joins, though these are minimal and do not extend far at all from the joins. More broadly applied retouches are visible in the upper left background, as well as a large patch found in the painted wall to the left of the column. A couple further, and minor, retouches are scattered but none are there to fix a major loss. The figures themselves are in very good condition, with great coloration and retention of original paint. For a picture of this size it is in very favorable condition and may be hung as is. In a carved wooden frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This fascinating painting depicts the first Passover Feast, a subject rarely depicted in Western painting. The scriptural origin of the painting is boldly indicated by the inscription "Exodus 12" that appears on the column base in the background. In that chapter Moses and Aaron are instructed by the Lord to prepare a feast of roast lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. They are told to "eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste." On that night the first-born sons of the Egyptians were slain and the Israelites spared.

The depiction of the scene is both literal and inventive. The participants all stand; their shoes, staffs, and hurried gestures indicating their need to eat quickly prior to their imminent departure. Their out-sized hands and feet may be as much a visual emblem of their haste as it is a stylistic idiosyncrasy of the artist.

Although the panel is clearly signed with the monogram "Hb," it is only recently that its author has been definitively established as the Antwerp painter Huybrecht Beuckelaer. In the nineteenth century the work had been attributed to his brother Joachim Beuckelaer (whose name and dates remain elegantly inscribed on the painting's nineteenth-century frame), but its distinctive style had been noted by art historians – which led to the creation of the anonymous "Monogrammist HB," finally associated with the documented Huybrecht Beuckelaer in 1997. Both Huybrecht and Joachim appear to have received their early training in the studio of Pieter Aertsen and apparently worked together when Joachim took over the studio following Aertsen's departure to Amsterdam in the early 1560s. The present panel, which is dated 1563, is Huybrecht's earliest known work. Later paintings include The Prodigal Son Feasting with Harlots and The Kitchen Maid with Helpers, both in the Musées Royaux de Beaux Arts, Brussels. Documentation of Huybrecht's career is meagre. He is recorded as an independent master in the Antwerp guild of St. Luke only in 1579 and it has been thought that he may have worked with Anthonis Mor in the 1560s.

Huybrecht Beuckelaer's panel appears to be the earliest independent painting depicting the first Passover Feast. In 1464 Dirk Bouts had painted the subject as the lower left wing of his Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament in Louvain, but the few other known examples of the subject are later.