Godfried Schalcken

Possibly Robert Kerr (1636-1702), 1st Marquess of Lothian, Newbattle Abbey, Scotland;

Probably William Kerr (1661-1722), 2nd Marquess of Lothian, Newbattle Abbey, Scotland;

William Kerr (1690-1767), 3rd Marquess of Lothian, Newbattle Abbey, Scotland;

Thence by descent and inheritance with Newbattle Abbey and Monteviot House to Michael Kerr (b.1945), 13th Marquess of Lothian;

By whom sold ("Property from the Marquesses of Lothian"), London, Sotheby's, 28 March 2017, lot 450 (as Attributed to Schalcken);

With Selvaggio Fine Art, via Bob Haboldt (as Schalcken);

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian at TEFAF, Maastricht, 2018.

Probably Newbattle Abbey inventory, circa 1726/1727 ("A picture of Rosamond by G. Schalken junior");

Newbattle Abbey inventory, March 1833, inv. no. 272;

Newbattle Abbey inventory, May 1878, inv. no. 272 ("Portrait of a woman holding a cup, by Schalcken," Inner Hall);

Newbattle Abbey inventory, 21 May 1900, inv. no. 272 (Inner Hall);

Newbattle Abbey inventory, December 1901, p. 76 ("Bust of a woman holding a cup," Inner Hall);

Monteviot House inventory, 14 July 1989, inv. no. 272 (as Godfried Schalcken);

W. Franits, Godefridus Schalcken: A Dutch Painter in Late Seventeenth-Century London, Amsterdam 2018, p. 181, cat. no. 36.

Godfried Schalcken probably produced this mature work in London, where the Dutch painter resided from 1692 to 1696. A specialist in candlelit nocturnal scenes, Schalcken bathes this composition in a warm, golden light. Rendered with relatively loose brushwork, the young boy, depicted in profile, focuses his downward gaze on a silver chalice, an attribute of Saint John the Evangelist.

This painting is probably the same one recorded circa 1726 in the collection of William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian, in whose family’s possession it remained until 2017. The work may have entered the Scottish noble collection shortly after its execution in London via Robert Kerr, 1st Marquess of Lothian, who built an esteemed collection of contemporary Dutch art. According to inventory records, the painting hung at Newbattle Abbey, the Lothian family's impressive stately home near Edinburgh, until 1937 when it presumably was moved to Monteviot House.