Property from a New York Private Collection
Nicolas La Fabrique
The Dowser
Live auction begins on:
February 6, 03:00 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
Bid
11,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a New York Private Collection
Nicolas La Fabrique
1649 Namen - 1733 Luik
The Dowser
signed on the trim of the woman's blouse: Nicolas Fabricque F. D Na[...]
inscribed upper left on the escutcheon: P. B.
canvas: 33 by 27 ¾ in.; 83.3 by 70.5 cm
framed: 38 by 32 ½ in.; 96.5 by 82.6 cm
Luigi Koelliker, Milan, by 2005 (inv. no. LK 1029);
By whom sold ("Property from an Important Private Collection"), New York, Christie's, 19 June 2020, lot 32 (as Bellotti);
Where acquired by the present collector.
Turin, Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, Il Male: Esercizi di pittura crudele, 25 February - 26 June 2005, no. 99 (lent by Luigi Koelliker);
Sao Paolo, Pinacoteca do Estado; Rio de Janeiro, Paço Imperial, Luce e ombra nella pittura italiana tra Rinascimento e Barocco, Da Tiziano a Bernini, 28 March - 8 June 2006, no. 25 (lent by Luigi Koelliker);
Brescia, Brixiantiquaria, Pietro Bellotti e Dintorni: Dipinti veneti e lombardi tra realtà e 'Genere' dalla Collezione Koelliker, 17 - 25 November 2007, no. 2.
F. Rossi, in Il Male: Esercizi di pittura crudele, exhibition catalogue, V. Sgarbi (ed.), Milan 2005, pp. 333-334, cat. no. 99, reproduced p. 161 (as Bellotti);
F. Rossi, in Luce e ombra nella pittura italiana tra Rinascimento e Barocco, Da Tiziano a Bernini, exhibition catalogue, V. Sgarbi (ed.), Milan 2006, p. 105, cat. no. 25, reproduced p. 60 (as Bellotti);
L. Anelli, in Pietro Bellotti e Dintorni: Dipinti veneti e lombardi tra realtà e 'Genere' dalla Collezione Koelliker, exhibition catalogue, A. Orlando (ed.), Brescia 2007, pp. 42-45, cat. no. 2, reproduced (as Bellotti);
L. Anelli, in Pietro Bellotti e Dintorni: Dipinti veneti e lombardi tra realtà e 'Genere' dalla Collezione Koelliker, exhibition catalogue, A. Orlando (ed.), Turin 2008, pp. 102-105, cat. no. 19, reproduced (as Nicolas La Fabrique, perhaps after a lost original by Pietro Bellotti);
F. Ceretti, "Un profilo per Pietro Bellotti," in Pietro Bellotti e la pittura del Seicento a Venezia, Stupore realtà enigma, exhibition catalogue, F. Ceretti, M. Nicolaci, and F. Piazza (eds.), Rome 2025, p. 35 note 17 (as Nicolas La Fabrique).
Although previously attributed to Pietro Bellotti, this work, which combines uncompromising realism with painterly finesse, is signed by the enigmatic French painter Nicolas La Fabrique. The half-length figure, clad in an elaborate costume, is rendered without idealization: her deeply lined forehead and pronounced goiter are depicted with striking candor. She holds divining rods, identifying her as a dowser: an individual believed to possess the ability to locate underground water or mineral deposits through a form of folk divination.
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