The Hovingham Master

The Hamilton Collection;
A. Grégoire Collection, Paris (according to a label and red wax seal on the reverse);
Étienne-François Haro (1827 - 1897) and his son, Jules Haro (1855 - 1892), Paris;
Their Estate Sale, Paris, Galerie Sedelmeyer, 30-31 May 1892, lot 39 (as Nicolas Poussin);
Private Collection, England.

A. Blunt, "Poussin Studies XII: The Hovingham Master" in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 103 no. 704, November 1961, pp. 457-458, reproduced p. 459 fig. 24.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This large painting has not been restored in many years. The canvas has an old glue lining. The paint layer is beginning to be quite textured and unstable in many areas and a fresh lining would certainly solve this issue. The painting is very yellowed with an old varnish. Despite the fact that retouching is not readily visible under ultraviolet light, it can be seen that there are numerous retouches that have been added. The condition of many parts of the putti at the top of the picture is quite good. However, many of these leaves have been repainted in the foliage in the upper left. The profiles of the trees have been augmented and a good deal of fresh paint has been added to the figures and their clothing throughout the picture, as well as to the vines and foliage through the remainder of the picture. Much of this repainting is cosmetic and very liberal. It certainly does address the more limited palette of the original work as well as a weakening and thinness to the paint layer. Perhaps the most visible alteration to the work is the arrangement of the clouds in the sky. It seems that sky has received almost complete overhaul with hardly any of the original sky showing. Cleaning the work would represent a large commitment. The work could also be “freshened up” without cleaning, but instability would remain to the paint layer.
"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."

The oeuvre of this anonymous hand was originally grouped together by Anthony Blunt in 1961 (see Literature) recognizing a cohesion between a number of works erroneously attributed to Nicolas Poussin. Blunt named the artist after two works at Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire in the collection of Sir William Worsley.¹   In the Birth of Bacchus the artist's figures, with their distinctive cool flesh tones, elongated noses and pointed, unarticulated fingers can be compared with those in his Nurture of Jupiter, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.²  The pair of reclining nymphs on a hillock in the background is repeated in both compositions while the tiny wings of the putti, the delicate floral wreathes and his treatment of foliage "almost as if it were in embroidery or tapestry" link this back to the Hovingham Toilet of Venus and Leda and the Swan.³  The more neo-classical treatment of the figures in this work leads Blunt to a dating most likely after 1650.⁴ 

1.  A. Blunt (see under Literature) p. 454
2.  Ibid. and reproduced p. 459, fig. 25
3.  Ibid. reproduced p. 455, figs. 16 and 17
4.  Ibid. p.458