Abraham Govaerts Antwerp 1589 - 1626

With J. da Costa, Neuilly, by 1941;
Acquired from the above by Galerie Haberstock, Berlin, on 18 November 1941;
Sold by Kurt Haberstock to the Linz Collection, 5 January 1942;
Führerbau, Munich, until 1945, no. 2192 (see cream-coloured label on reverse);
Central Collecting Point, Munich, no. 4967 (in pencil on reverse);
Returned to Paris 18 April 1946;
Private Collection, France.

K. Borms, Abraham Govaerts, zijn leven en artistieke bedrijvigheid..., Leuven 1988, no. F45;
U. Härting & K. Borms, Abraham Govaerts, Netherlands 2003, p. 122, no. 98, reproduced.

Govaerts painted a very similar landscape on a panel of almost identical size, dated 1615 and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan¹ (inv. 665), in which he replaced the woodcutter and his boy in the left foreground with an Abraham and Isaac. Dr. Ursula Härting dates this picture to the same period, circa 1615-17.  Govaerts frequently collaborated with a figure painter, often Frans Francken the Younger, but here the staffage is by Govaerts or a member of his workshop.  Another similar work sold Paris, Piasa, 13 June 1997, lot 13² but Dr. Härting does not consider this to be a fully autograph work by the artist.

1. see U. Härting, under Literature, p. 81, no. 12.
2. op. cit., p. 122, no. 97.