Lot 333
  • 333

Abraham del Hele

Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
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Description

  • Abraham del Hele
  • Portraits of Karl von Langemantel (d.1610) of Augsburg, and his wife Korona Welser (d.1650)
  • both inscribed and dated: ANNO DNI.1592.
  • a pair, both oil on canvas laid on panel

Provenance

By probable descent in the von Langemantel family, Augsburg;
Laura Kestler, née von Langemantel;
By inheritance to her daughter-in-law Viktoria Kesler, née Lachenmayer, Augsburg;
Acquired from the above in 1948 by the father of the present owner.

Catalogue Note

Karl von Langemantel, who was Mayor of Augsburg and builder of the Kobel Church in Wertheim, is identified by the family crest on his signet ring. His wife Korona, who died in June 1650, was a member of the Welser family, who together with the Fuggers were among the most prominent Augsburg merchant families of this era. The pomander she wears is in the style of Daniel Mignot, an Augsburg jewellery designer active in the 1590s. Little is known about Abraham van Hele, who like other Flemish painters such as Lambert Sustris (circa1510-after 1560) - who may have been his teacher -  travelled south from Antwerp to Bavaria and beyond. Certainly the style of these portraits suggest an acquaintance with the Venetian-influenced style of Christoph Amberger (1505-1562), another native of Ausburg, who had worked for the Welser family as well as the Emperor Charles V. Del Hele is also documented as having worked for the Willem V of Bavaria and the Fuggers, and in 1576 painted a portrait of the Emperor and his family, which is now lost.
The attribution to del Hele was first suggested by Dr. Ludwig Oelenroth, Director of the Maximilian Museum in Augsburg, a copy of whose expertise, dated Augsburg May 1947, accompanies this lot.