Before it was cleaned & restored

(As stated in the auction catalogue; Sotheby’s London Old Master Paintings 10^th July 2003, lot 18):

Although this picture is thoroughly Rembrandtesque in all respects, it has yet to be convincingly attributed to any one of his pupils. It is reminiscent in several respects of pictures given to Abraham van Dyck, but none of the works that it most closely resembles in Werner Sumowski’s oeuvre catalogue are signed (Gemalde der Rembrandt Schuler, Landau/Pfalz 1983, vol. 1, for example p. 671, nos. 369, 371, reproduced pp. 690, 692), and in its heightened naturalism it probably falls outside Van Dyck’s corpus of work as it is currently understood. It also recalls some of the pictures by An Old Woman Weighing Gold Coins the anonymous Monogrammist IS, while lacking that artist’s obsessiveness in the depiction of detail.

Provenance:

 

Anonymous sale, London Sotheby’s, 9 December 1931, Lot 59 (as Rembrandt’) to A. Field;

A private collector, The Netherlands; An Old Woman Weighing Gold Coins

By inheritance to his daughter, from whom inherited by her husband, who sold this painting at:

London Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings 10th July 2003, Lot 18 (as Rembrandt School, Mid-17^th Century) to the present owner.

 

 

 

Condition Report 

This painting is presented in a cleaned & restored state.

 

Hamish Dewar, Ltd, Conservation and Restoration of Paintings, London, England did the cleaning, restoration and revarnishing including the removal of very degraded and discolored varnish layers.  

 

Before the cleaning under ultra violet light very few retouchings are visible with the exception of an area in the lower left corner of the composition where there are retouchings in the brown pigment to the left of the red tablecloth. All areas were restored to original state.

 

The image is painted in oil on 17^th century oak panel, the three 3 planks which make up the panel has been cradled and is in sound and stable structural condition.

 

Cradling with Battens Flat

 

The artist used the 17^th Century standard 90 by 75 cm panel known as the “guldensmaat” or guilder size for this painting. A later owner in cradling the panel alters the size of the picture by trimming 2.8 cm off the length and 1.7 cm off the width. The present size is 87.2 by 73.3; 34 ¼ by 28 ¾ in.