Attributed to Wolfgang Heimbach

Anonymous sale, Milan, Christie's, 29 November 2006, lot 20, where acquired by the present owner.

London, Robilant and Voena, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, 28 November - 19 December 2007, cat. no. 10, pp. 36-7.

C. Wright in French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London 2007, p. 36, cat. no. 10, reproduced p. 37.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting has been recently relined, cleaned and restored. The paint layer is stable and flat. Under Ultra-violet light the remains of an old varnish can be detected which has blanched; also visible are restorations to pin-prick paint losses and to areas where the coarsely textured canvas has been abraded. Some of this restoration is imprecise and discoloured. The impastoed paint is well preserved as is the brush stroke texture to the surface. The paint layer saturates well and the varnish is not discoloured. Offered in a painted oval, in a black painted and part gilt frame in good condition."
"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."

Wolfgang Heimbach was a mute painter who was sent to train in the Netherlands and there came under the influence of Dutch genre painters such as Dirck Hals and Pieter Codde. In around 1640, Heimbach travelled southwards to Italy where he remained until 1651. The present painting probably dates from the artist's time in Italy, during which period he began to achieve a dramatic impact with chiaroscuro in his paintings.

Christopher Wright (see Literature) has endorsed the attribution to Heimbach and has compared the present work to other night scenes by the artist, in which single figures shield the flame of their lamps with their hand, casting a distinctive shadow upwards onto their faces; see, in particular, the Young Girl with an Oil Lamp and the Young Man with an Oil Lamp, both in the Galleria Doria-Pamphili in Rome.¹

1. See B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, vol. I, Turin 1989, p. 121, reproduced vol. III, pls. 1609 & 1610.