Hendrick van Balen Antwerp 1575 - 1632

Gustaf Adolf Sparre (1746-1794);
Sparre inv. 1794, p. 118, no. 49.

Göthe, 1895, p. 15, no. 15, as Flemish, circa 1600;
I. Jost, "Hendrick van Balen d. Ä.  Versuch einer Chronologie der Werke aus den ersten zwei Jahrzehnten des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kabinettbilder", in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, vol. 14, 1963, p. 117, reproduced fig. 14 (as datable circa 1605 and 1608);
Hasselgren, 1974, p. 118, reproduced p. 169;
B. Werche, Hendrick van Balen (1575-1632).  Een Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, Turnhout 2004, vol. 1, p. 141, no. A 17, reproduced vol. 2, p. 326 (as whereabouts unknown, and as datable circa 1610).

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a strong, perfectly flat copper panel. There is no sign of the tiny raised craquelure often associated with copper, and the paint has remained smooth and completely secure. One or two little accidental chips are apparently recent: a little scratch by the mid left edge, a minute flake in the grass to the left and nearby in the neck of the seated man, one older mark in the striped baptismal robe of the child in the centre, and one in the pink drapery in the middle on the right. The old varnish is rather dimmed and the surface has various fly spots as well as a scattering of small blanched old retouchings in the sky. However these appear to be superficial and the quite extraordinarily intact condition of this painting suggests that it may never have been cleaned at all. The flow of the glazing and completely unbroken brushwork even in the most delicate drapery in the middle distance for instance, or the light hatching of the grass in the foreground as well as the lovely bowl of fruit in the corner, the luxuriant foliage of the thickets and distant woods, and even the minute distant scene, are all astonishingly intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This picture is on an expensive copper support made by the principal manufacturer of copper plates in Antwerp, Peeter Stas, whose stamp can be found on the reverse (see fig. 1).  On the evidence of numerous Stas copper plates that also bear their date of manufacture, Stas' stamp seems to have changed almost every year until 1610.  By comparison with dated stamps, backed up by data from stamped coppers supporting dated paintings, the present copper plate can be dated to as early as 1603-4, and probably before 1606, thus providing a possible terminus post quem for this painting.¹

Ingrid Jost dated this picture circa 1605-8, but Bettina Werche puts it later, circa 1610 or slightly after.²  In view of the evidence from the Stas copper, the earlier dating is more likely.  Not many of Van Balen's cabinet pictures are dated, but on the evidence of three works on copper that are all dated 1608: Werche nos. A 75, A 109 & A 110; and a work on canvas dated 1602: Werche no. A 107, a dating in the middle of the first decade of the 17th century seems plausible.  The style of the landscape, probably by another hand close to Jan Brueghel the Elder, would also support a dating before 1610. 

Göthe catalogued it as 'Flemish, circa 1600', but recorded an earlier attribution to Jan Brueghel, while Gerson (cited by Hasselgren) attributed it to Hendrick van Balen or Johann Rottenhammer.

1.   See J. Wadum, in Copper as Canvas, exhibition catalogue, New York/ Oxford 1999, p.104, esp. figs. 5.10-5.12.
2.   See under Literature.