Attributed to Albrecht BOUTS (Leuven 1451 - 1549) - Lot 3

Attributed to Albrecht BOUTS (Leuven 1451 - 1549) Christ of Sorrow Oak panel, one board, not parqueted (painted on the reverse with the collection mark) Bears on the reverse the collection mark of Dona Aldonza of Toledo (Old restorations) 37,4x28,5cm Provenance: - Collection of Dona Aldonza de Toledo before her marriage in 1533 to don Juan de Fonseca, 21st Lord of Azala (according to Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, n°4-5, 1964); - Sale of the collection of M. X... (Cacaret), Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Mes Dubreuil et Pacquet), May 22, 1914, no. 6, reproduced (School of van der Weyden, Christ Crowned with Thorns, Virgin of Sorrow, two panels forming pendants on gold ground. Annotation 3905 fr for the pair to M. Bérard). Bibliography: Catalog of the exhibition Blut und Tränen. Albrecht Bouts und das Antlitz der Passion, Luxembourg, Nationalmuseum für Geschichte und Kunst from October 7, 2016 to February 12, 2017 and Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, from March 8 to June 11, 2017, cited under no. 12 (counterpart to the Mater Dolorosa in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Paris sale 1914). Our panel is the right-hand side of the Vierge de douleur in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (ill. 1), donated to the museum by Octave Linet in 1963. Christ and La Vierge were united until the "Cacaret" sale of 1914, when they were purchased by "Bérard". They were separated between 1914 and 1952, when La Vierge was exhibited alone at the Galerie Charpentier, on loan from Octave Linet (van der Weyden school). It transpires that Octave Linet and a certain "Madame Bérard" appear in the same account book of the American dealer Knoedler, Goupil's representative in New York. Octave Linet entrusted a Jan van Huysum painting to Knoedler in 1925, and Madame A. Bérard entrusted two Renoir paintings to Knoedler in 1936 and 1938 (see Getty Provenance Index). In the 1920s and 1930s, Knoedler may have been responsible for separating the paintings. Our panel and the one in Tours bear the same mark of its owner, Aldonza de Toledo, testifying to the well-studied presence of many Flemish paintings in sixteenth-century Spain. Albert Bouts is the second son of Dirk Bouts, and like his father made his career in Leuven. On numerous occasions, he adapted a prototype created by his father Dirk Bouts in the 1450s, and often used this feint embossing for his gold background. At the time, there was a strong demand for these devotional diptychs, which accompanied the faithful in their daily prayers and could easily be carried on their owners' travels. Their production is linked to the Devotio Moderna current of Christian spirituality, which emphasizes pathos and the idea of Christ's sacrifice. This practice recommends individual contemplation as a means to salvation. On our panel, Christ is depicted in bust form, facing forward, hands folded across his chest. His emaciated face expresses silent pain. A crown of thorns girdles his forehead with slowly trickling drops of blood, while tears flow from his red eyes and bead his cheeks. Among the pairs that have survived in their entirety are the following: - Musée du Louvre, Inv. 1994 and Inv. 1986 - St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum, Inv. 4118 (copy) - New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv.71.156 (replica from Dirk Bouts' studio) - London, National Gallery, Inv. 712 (workshop of Dirk Bouts) - Leuven M. Museum (Dirk Bouts studio) - Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Inv. 73D73 (copy after Dirk Bouts) - Krakow, Czartoryski Museum (copy after Dirk Bouts). The infrared X-ray of our panel (ill. 2) shows a drawing and not the use of a poncifix. We would like to thank Peter van den Brink for validating the attribution to Albrecht Bouts and for comparing our painting with the one in Tours.