Dirck van Baburen

Possibly from the van Diemen Collection, Amsterdam, 1675, from which it may have passed as part of a dowry settlement to;
Probably Mansi Collection, Lucca (according to Leonard Slatkes, see note);
With Galerie Bruno Meissner, Zurich, by 1988;
By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, June 3, 1988, lot 76, for $200,000;
Dr. Hiroshi Ishizuka, Tokyo, Japan, from whom purchased by the present collector.

E. Jacobsen, 'Niederländsche Kunst in den Fallerien Mansi zu Lucca', in Oud Holland, vol. XIV, 1896, p. 97;
A. von Wurzbach, Niederlandisches Kunstler-Lexicon, vol. I, 1906, p. 38 (as unclearly signed);
R. Longhi, 'Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane', in Vita Artistica, vol. I, 1926, pp. 70-71;
P.T.A. Swillens, 'DeSchilder Theodorus van Baburen', in Oud Holland, XLVII, 1931, p. 88, (as unclearly signed);
G. Isarlo, Caravage et Caravagisme Européen, Aix-en-Provence 1941, p. 71;
Mostra da Caravaggio et dei Caravaggeschi, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1951, p. 45 (as half length version of the composition);
L.J. Slatkes, Dirck van Baburen (circa 1595-1624)-A Dutch Painter in Utrecht and Rome, Utrecht 1965, p. 57, p. 115, cat. no. A11B (as impossible to determine authenticity having never even seen an image of the composition);
B. Nicholson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford 1979, p. 17, cat. no. 3, under the heading of Christ among the Doctors (as an autograph replica);
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, Oxford 1989 vol. I, p. 54, under the heading of Christ Among the Doctors (as an autograph replica and as signed and dated 1662?);
A. Blankert and L.J. Slatkes, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, exhibition catalogue, Utrecht 1986-87, p. 180, under no. 34 (as monogrammed).

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 is in beautiful condition. The canvas has an old European glue lining. The original canvas shows a three to four inch original addition on the right edge and the join is slightly visible here. The paint layer is in beautiful and remarkably well preserved condition. It seems to be dirty and there is every indication that if the picture were to be cleaned, the yellow varnish would be easily removed to reveal a brighter palate with more depth in the darker colors. As far as we are aware, there are hardly any retouches of any note. There are a few small scuffs in the varnish in the lower right, but even the darker colors in the cloak of the figure in the center, are well preserved. The only slight weakness is in the nun's habit in the rear of the composition in the center, which is slightly abraded. Overall the condition is marvelous.
"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."

Wayne Franits and the late Leonard Slatkes, both of whom examined firsthand the present Christ Among the Doctors, consider this work to be the second autograph version of the composition by Baburen.  The prime version, signed and dated 1622, and originally of almost identical dimensions as the present canvas, is in the Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.¹  There is a third version, now in a private collection, which was formerly on loan to the Indiana University Art Museum (circa 2001-2002).  There are also at least three copies or studio replicas of the composition of varying sizes and quality.

Christ Among the Doctors is one of the few paintings of religious subjects made by Baburen after his return in circa 1620 to Utrecht from Italy, and its composition is close in style to other canvases the artist executed during his sojourn in Rome.  In the present work, for instance, the Roman influence is evident in Baburen's emphasis on the expressive gestures of each of the figures, a feature which the artist also employed in his Christ Washing the Feet of Disciples (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, cat. no. 462), which he executed in Rome for his patron Vincenzo Giustiniani.  The dramatic hand gestures of the figures also reveal the clear influence that the painting of Caravaggio had on Baburen's style.  Indeed, in his monograph on the artist, Slatkes suggests that Caravaggio's Madonna of the Rosary, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 147) in which the artist uses a complex vocabulary of hand gestures, was in Amsterdam circa 1620, and may have served as a model to Baburen at that time.² 

Slatkes identified the present Christ Among the Doctors as the one formerly in the Mansi Collection, Lucca (see Provenance), and subsequent scholars have followed his supposition.  This identification, however, may not be considered definite: the Mansi work has been recorded as signed and dated T.D. Babueren anno 1622 in most sources (see Literature), yet no traces of a signature or date remain on the present canvas.³

Dr. Wayne Franits will include this painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the works of Dirck van Baburen.

1.  The Oslo canvas has had a twenty-four centimeter strip added along the top, and now measures 190 by 210 cm; however, it would have originally measured 166 cm. in height, and thus would have been of almost identical dimension as the present composition.
2.   See L.J. Slatkes, Dirck van Baburen (circa 1595-1624)-A Dutch Painter in Utrecht and Rome, Utrecht 1965, p. 59.
3.  Furthermore, Slatkes notes in his Dirck van Baburen (circa 1595-1624) – A Dutch Painter in Utrecht and Rome, Utrecht 1965, p. 155 that C. Hofstede de Groot in two unpublished notes in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, the Hague, relates the Mansi painting to the one in Oslo and states that the Mansi version was fully signed and dated.