Netherlandish School, second quarter of the 16th century

James-Alexandre de Pourtalès, Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (1776–1855), Paris;

His posthumous sale, Paris, 27 March 1865, lot 163 (as Hans Holbein the Younger);

Jacques Normand;

His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 7 March 1923, lot 21 (as School of Hans Holbein the Younger, "The Apothecaries");

Possibly with Jacques Seligmann, Paris (as German School, 16th century);

Eugène Pelletier, Paris, by 1930;

His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 3 December 1930, lot 7 (as Attributed to Joos van Cleve, Portrait of an apothecary, its pair as subsequent lot 8);

Where acquired by A. Popoff & Cie., Paris, until 1936;

Lielchenfeld collection, New York, by 1947.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Exhibition of Old Art from the Possession of the International Trade, June - August 1936, no. 23 (as Bartholomäus Bruyn, and as one of a pair).

Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de la pharmacie 11, no. 38 (1923), p. 218 (as School of Holbein);

"Un Tableau Médical de Van Schorel," in Aesculape 13 (1923), p. 168 (as Jan van Scorel);

C. Larraz and R. Villa, Portraits du Maître de Dinteville, Cinisello Balsamo 2023, pp. 65-68, old black and white image reproduced fig. 43 (as anonymous Netherlandish school, 1527? or possibly 1530s).

This imposing portrait depicts a forty-three-year-old man standing before a stone-arch and attired in a dark green robe and hat. Details within the painting reveal hints about his profession and his identity. The spatula that he holds in his right hand and the jug inscribed RUBEA FEBRILIS (which may translate to scarlet fever, but may also be interpreted as RUBRICA FEBRILIS, or red carpenter’s chalk, used in the 16th century for treatments of wounds) suggest he is a physician. The coat of arms hanging from a green string above his head with three gold stars against a black background and three red carnations against a gold background bears some similarities to that of the Thoynet de Bigny family.¹

Until about 1923, the present lot once formed the left half of a larger panel. The right half, which is unlocated today, depicts another doctor looking at a glass flask filled with bodily fluids. Before him on the ledge are a wicker container for the flask, a quill, and an inkwell, near which is a prescription that is said to have listed mastic oil and coral powder as proposed remedies.² The figure on that panel is aged 31 (the inscription below him reads Anno meo, 31, or in my thirty-first year), and he is almost certainly the brother of the figure in the present lot, as affirmed by the same crest hanging from above. Further confirmation of the two figures being brothers arises from them shown here together in the likenesses of Saints Cosmas and Damian, brothers active as physicians in the 3rd century who would become the patron saints of physicians and surgeons.

Since the 19th century, several attributions have been proposed for this panel. When in the famed Parisian collection of James-Alexandre de Pourtalès, Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (1776-1855), Hans Holbein the Younger was put forward as the author. Other attributions suggested have included Joos van Cleve, Barthel Bruyn, and Jan van Scorel among others. Stylistic comparisons can also be drawn to the works of Martin van Heemskerck, a student of Van Scorel’s.

According to an annotation on an archive card in the Frick Art Reference Library, the prescription sheet in the lower right corner of the portrait of the younger brother was read as possibly 1527(?) from an old reproduction, although the last two digits were difficult to decipher.

¹ J.B. Rietstap, Armorial général; précédé d'un Dictionnaire des termes du blason. II. L-Z, Gouda 1884, p. 909 (as "Anjau. D'or à trois oeillets de gueules tigés et feuillés de sinople au chef d'azur ch. de trois étoiles d'argent"). The stars in their crest are described as silver instead of gold.

² This information is noted in "Un Tableau Médical de Van Schorel," in Aesculape, vol. XIII, 1923, p. 168.