Workshop of the Francken Family, 1605

Albert G. De Berghe, Paris and Belgium;

His sale, Brussels, Galerie Fievez, 7 -8 June 1906, lot 103 (as Frans Pourbus the Younger and Sebastian Vrancx; as dated 1605);

Anonymous sale ('Collections de M. T..., de France at M. X..., de Londres'), Brussels, Galerie Fievez, 15 July 1920, lot 55 (as Frans Pourbus the Younger; as signed and dated 1605);

Probably where acquired by the grandfather of the present owners;

Thence by descent.

Dated 1605, this large and impressive painting would appear to be a product of the workshop of the large Francken family of painters – a dynasty of Antwerp-based artists spanning five generations, from Nicolaas Francken (circa 1520–1596), the founder of the dynasty, to Constantijn Francken III (1661–1717) the last member of the family to make a career as a painter.¹ Many of the second and third generations of Francken painters overlapped and are known to have worked together, and individually, along with workshop participation. The present work, dated 1605, bears many of the hallmarks of the collaborative paintings produced by the fathers and sons of these generations, including the elder Franckens, Frans I (circa 1542–1616), Hieronymus I (1540–1610) and Ambrosius I (1544/45–1618), and the younger Franckens, Thomas (1575–after 1639), Hans (1581–1624), and Hieronymus II (1578–1623); it may not, however, be connected stylistically with perhaps the most well-known Franckens: Frans II (1581–1642) and Ambrosius II (after 1590–1632), whose œuvres are more well-defined.

Though there are few or no signed works by a number of these figures, the present painting fits into the orbit of workshop productions in which they are known to have been involved, in paintings such as those in the Sint-Waldetrudis Church, Herentals, for example.² Indeed, this painting has also previously been compared to some of the works formerly displayed in the Cathedral of our Lady in Antwerp, which include numerous paintings attributed variously to Hieronymus I, Frans I and Ambrosius I, several of which are now housed in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp,³ as well as the painting of the Raising of the youth of Nain, which still hangs in the cathedral, now attributed to Otto van Veen, though previously also connected with the Franckens.⁴

Although the composition does not compare to other renderings of the subject by the Francken family, certain motifs, such as the seated figure with the child, lower right, do appear – with variations – in paintings by Frans II,⁵ and Hieronymus III.⁶ The subject of Saint John Preaching was a popular one chosen by patrons around the turn of the 17th century, portraits of whom were included in the scene, as if part of the crowd. The group portrait of the family here on the left, formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger, is clearly executed by a different hand to the other figures and the landscape, but the attribution to Pourbus is no longer upheld. Tantalisingly, this painting is described as being signed in the auction catalogues of 1906 and 1920, where it was catalogued as by Pourbus (see Provenance), but no such signature is now visible.

We are grateful to Dr Natasja Peeters and Dr Jan de Maere for their assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

¹ For further discussion of the Francken dynasty, see N. Peeters, 'From Nicolaas to Constantijn: the Francken family and their rich artistic heritage (c. 1550–1717)', in Family Ties. Art Production and Kinship Patterns in the Early Modern Low Countries, Turnhout 2012, pp. 103–17.

² N. Peeters and J. Cools, De Franckens in Herentals het schildersgeslacht Francken in de Sint-Waldetrudiskerk te Herentals, Herentals 2018; and J. de Maere, ‘Multiple original versions of a Descent from the Cross. Frans Francken II and family collaboration in the workshop’, Brukenthal Acta Musei, vol. XVII, 2022.

³ https://kmska.be/en/meesterwerken?keys=ambrosius+francken

⁴ https://artinflanders.be/nl/kunst/opwekking-van-de-jongeling-van-nain

⁵ https://rkd.nl/explore/images/224437

⁶ https://rkd.nl/explore/images/226867