Circle of Joos van Cleve

Fernandez Patto, Paris;
Adolphe Schloss, Paris, before 1919;
By descent in the family;
Confiscated by the Nazis from the estate of Adolphe Schloss, Château de Chambon, Laguenne near Tulle;
Confiscated and allocated to the Fuehrermuseum in Linz  (deposited at the Führerbau);
Restituted to France and thereafter to the Estate of Adolphe Schloss, Paris (München CCP, inv. 44620);
His sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 25 May 1949, lot 32 (as by the Master of Frankfurt).

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent Tableaux d'Art Religieux du XIVe Siècle a Nos Jours, December 1952 -  March 1953 (as by the Master of Frankfurt).

M.J. Friedländer, "Der Meister von Frankfurt," in Jahrbuch der Königlich Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen, 38 (1917), p. 147, cat. no. 18 (as by the Master of Frankfurt);
S.H. Goddard, The Master of Frankfurt and His Shop, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, 46 (1984), no. 38, p. 166, no. 4 (under rejected attributions).

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 and what restoration there is has been very nicely applied. There are a few spots of retouching in the figures and hardly any in the landscape or anywhere else. The paint layer is stable. The reverse of the panel has been cradled but the cradle seems to be effective, and the painting should be hung as is.
"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 pose of the Virgin and Child in the present panel is based on Jan van Eyck's Lucca Madonna (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt).  This work appears to be by an Antwerp master, circa 1510-1520, in the circle or possibly the workshop of Joos van Cleve.  It relates closely to a panel by Van Cleve, depicting the Holy Family, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (32.100.57); the figural type of the Virgin resembles that of the Virgin in a painting of the Holy Family from the Workshop of Joos van Cleve, also in the Metropolitan Museum (Robert Lehman Collection 1975.1.117).