Circle of Simon Marmion

Jacques Seilgmann, Paris;
Anonymous sale, March 11, 1914, lot 368;
Private Collection, by 1914;
With Paul Bottenwieser, Berlin, 1929;
Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Schloss Rohoncz, Lugano, before 1930;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, May 22, 1992, lot 64A;
Whereby acquired by the present owner.

Munich, Schloss Rohoncz Exhibition, Neue Pinakothek, 1930, no. 211, reproduced, plate 114;
Rotterdam-Essen, Collectie Thyssen-Borhemisza Schloss Rohoncz: 110 Meesterwerten Europese Schilderkunst van de XIVe-XVIlle,  November 14, 1959-January 3, 1960, Museum Boyans, no. 69;
London, National Gallery, From Van Eyck to Tiepolo and paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection., 1961;
London, National Gallery, on loan November 1963-Easter 1964.

A.L. Mayer, O. von Falke,  Pantheon, IV, July-December 1929, p. 437, reproduced, pp. 425, ;
G. Biermann, "Die Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz", in Cicerone, Leipzig, July 1930, vol. XXII, p. 367, reproduced p. 361;
Munich, Schloss Rohoncz Exhibition, Neue Pinakothek, 1930, exhibition catalogue, no. 211, reproduced pl. 114;
R. J. Heinemann, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, exhibition catalouge, Zurich 1937, vol.  I, p. 94, cat. no. 258, reproduced vol II, plate 252 (where first referred as a work by Simon Marmion by M.J. Friedländer);
H.G. Alexander, "The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection at Lugano", in Connoisseur, vol. 123, March 1949, p. 31, reproduced fig. XII;
G. Ring, A Century of French Painting 1400-1500,  London 1949, p. 221, cat. no. 184 (as S.Marmion, about 1480);
M. Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, Early Netherlandish School, London 1955, p. 68, under cat. no. 2669 (as style of Marmion-rejecting the attribution by Friedländer to Marmion himself);
R. J. Heinemann, Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Lugano 1958, p. 64, cat. no. 258;
"La Collection Thyssen", in L'Oeil, November 1959, p. 40;
Rotterdam-Essen,Collectie Thyssen-Borhemisza Schloss Rohoncz: 110 Meesterwerten Europese Schilderkunst van de XIVe-XVIlle, 14 November 1959- 3 January 1960,  Museum Boyans, exhibition catalogue, p. 84, no. 69;
London News, April 22, 1961, reproduced p. 671
National Gallery, London, Report, January 1, 1960-May 21, 1962, 1962, pp. 41-2;
The Thyssen-Boremisza Collection, Lugano 1966, p. 42, no. 258;
M. Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, Early Netherlandish School, 1968, p. 88, under cat. no. 2669 (as style of Marmion circa 1480);
The Thyssen-Boremisza Collection, 1969, cat. no. 188, pp. 205-6 (as Simon Marmion);
I. Schlégel,  S.D. Berkes, Guida Praktischet Führer durch Die Thyssen-Bornemisza Sammlung, Lugano 1971,  room XIX, p. 131, cat. no. 188;
The National Gallery; Illustrated General Catalogue, 1972, p. 416;
C. Sterling, "La Peinture sur panneau picarde et son rayonnement dans le nord de la France au XVe siècle", in Bulletin de la Société de l' Histoire de l'Art français, 1979, p. 35, reproduced,, fig. 44c (as peintre du nord de la France au XVe siècle);
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001, p. 416, under inv. no. 2669 (as Style of Marmion).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting on wood has been cradled on the reverse. The paint layer is stable and the cradle seems to be effective. The paint layer is clean and has been retouched. Most of the retouches seem to be very effective and sparingly applied, and are visible under ultraviolet light mostly in the upper right addressing some cracking in the white headdress of the female figure. The remainder of the picture is in conspicuously well preserved condition and barely any restorations are present in the faces, the hands in the lower left, and in the landscape and the angel. The condition is clearly very good with no further restoration necessary.
"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."

The present work is the right wing of a triptych, generally recognized as by an artist in the Circle of Simon Marmion. The left wing, A Male Donor with Saint Clement, is in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. NG 2669), the central panel, Virgin and Child with Landscape Background, was sold along with the present work in these rooms, May 22, 1992, lot 64. All three panels are in their original frames. The London panel has on its frame a contraction of credendo sentiamus quod pro nobis depreceris, while the frame on the present work was regilded at a later date.  

A Flemish, miniaturist tradition, particularly strong in the north of France, is evident both in the striking illusionism as well as in the panoramic landscape which joins the backgrounds of all three panels. Here, the presently anonymous artist has delightfully conjoined town and country, urban and rustic in a decidedly Rogerian manner. Courtiers can be seen playing recorders and dancing, others on horseback or sitting on the grass in the hills and along the banks of a river which flows across the background of the triptych. In his final comment on the attribution, Charles Sterling (see literature) reverts to G. Hulin de Loo's original opinion in the 1902 Bruges exhibition of Tableaux flamands (where the London panel was exhibited) that the painter is either a Flemish artist working in France or a French artist working in the north (along the present Belgian border). Both Davies and Sterling date the painting to the final quarter of the fifteenth century.