Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures from the collection of the late Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher
Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures from the collection of the late Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher
Property from the Collection of Sir Peter Jonas
Master of the Female Half-Lengths
The Penitent St Jerome in an extensive river landscape
Lot Closed
December 9, 02:03 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Collection of Sir Peter Jonas
Master of the Female Half-Lengths
Active in Antwerp during the first half of the 16th Century
The Penitent St Jerome in an extensive river landscape
oil on oak panel
unframed: 55.6 x 42.3 cm.; 21⅞ x 16⅝ in.
framed: 71 x 57.1 cm.; 28 x 22½ in.
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 21 April 2004, lot 6;
Where acquired by Sir Peter Jonas (1946–2020).
This composition is related to a type thought to have been established by Gerard David. Two high-quality paintings produced by his workshop attest to this: that of circa 1501 in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 2596),1 and that of circa 1510 in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. no. 1091).2 David's original, but untraced, design that must have served as the model for these works also inspired paintings by his pupils and followers, including Ambrosius Benson and Adriaen Isenbrandt.
This painting comes closest to the works of the Isenbrandt group, which were most probably circulating in Antwerp, where the Master of the Female Half-Lengths and his workshop are also believed to have been active. One such example, to which this panel comes closest, is the painting of circa 1520 in the State Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv. no. 436), in which details such as the single tree to the left with the saint's robe and hat draped over a branch, and the river landscape, forded by a two-arched bridge, recur.3 Other closely-related depictions of Saint Jerome from the workshop of the Master of the Female Half-Lengths include that recorded by Friedländer as sold from the collection of Dr Störi, Zurich, in 1929,4 and the painting with Rafael Valls, London in 2007.5
The influence of Joachim Patinir, the first great landscape artist, with whom the Master may have trained, is also particularly evident here. Patinir favoured the subject of Saint Jerome for the opportunity it afforded to situate the Penitent within wide vistas, full of detailed observation and anecdotal narratives, as in the central panel of his triptych of 1512–15, today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 36.14a–c).6
1 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/workshop-of-gerard-david-saint-jerome-in-a-landscape
2 https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en/work/saint-jerome-in-the-wilderness
3 https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+paintings/38864
4 M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. XII, Leiden and Brussels 1975, p. 98, no. 79, reproduced plate 40.
5 https://rkd.nl/explore/images/117170
6 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437261
For more information on the Collection of Sir Peter Jonas, please see: Sir Peter Jones: A Lifelong Love of Old Masters