Jan de Bray

With Galerie Marcus, Paris, 1972 (as by Pieter de Grebber);
John Montias, from 1982 until his death in 2005;
Thence by descent to his son, Jean-Luc Montias;
From whom acquired.

New Haven, The Yale University Art Gallery, Dutch Religious Art of the Seventeenth Century, 21 January - 16 March, 1975, no. 9;
Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, 17th Century Dutch Painting, Raising the Curtain on New England Private Collections, 1979, no. 4;
Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Jan de Bray and the Classical Tradition, 12 November 2004 - 14 August 2005, no. 5.

J. Welu, in 17th Century Dutch Painting, Raising the Curtain on New England Private Collections, Worcester 1979, p. 23, cat. no. 4, reproduced (as possibly dated 1670);
M. Doyle, ed., Jan de Bray and the Classical Tradition, exhibition brochure, Manchester, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. 2004, p. 14, cat no. 5, reproduced p. 15 (as painted in 1678);
J. Giltaij, Jan de Braij (1626/1627-1697), Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 162-164, cat. no. 64, reproduced p. 163.

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 work is in excellent condition. The panel is made from two pieces of oak joined vertically through the center of the face and skull. There are a few small retouches along this thin join. There are hardly any other retouches. There are some visible under ultraviolet light in a few tiny dots in the hair to the left of the head and in the background in the upper left. The work still feels very fresh, and should be hung in its current 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."

Jan de Bray was born in Haarlem around 1627, the son of the painter Salomon de Bray with whom he most likely trained. He was a distinguished portrait painter and was arguably one of the most important history painters of the Golden Age.  His paintings are characterized by rich, vivid coloration and warm illumination, as can be seen in this striking portrayal of the Penitent Magdalene.¹ De Bray depicts the Magdalene against a dark cave-like background, a reference to the legend that for many years she lived in solitude as a hermit.  She is shown with her usual attributes of a skull and crucifix, and the open book with a scourge are symbols of her life of meditation and penitence.  De Bray has taken particular care in depicting the saint’s flowing golden hair with which, according to the Gospel of Luke, she had dried Christ’s feet after bathing and anointing them.  The perforated ointment jar seen at right in the background is a reference to this act, as well as to her anointment of Christ’s body when she came to his sepulcher after the Crucifixion.

The highly individualized features of the Magdalene and the direct manner in which she engages the viewer give this work the feel of an actual portrait, not just a devotional representation of the popular saint.  De Bray specialized in the portrait historié (historized portrait), in which he sometimes posed sitters as historical figures. James Welu (see Literature) was the first to suggest that the radiant woman here represented may be the artist’s third wife Victoria Stalpaert van der Wiele (died 1680) whose middle names were Maria Magdalena.²  From a prominent Roman Catholic family, she and De Bray were married in 1678.  If the sitter is, indeed, De Bray’s third wife, then the painting would have been executed around the time of their brief marriage, and the partially visible date on the painting places the painting in that decade.  Interestingly, another work by De Bray depicting Penelope and Odysseus, painted in 1668, is thought to be a portrait of the artist himself and his first wife, Maria van Hees.³

 

1.  See P. Biesboer in Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of the 17th Century, exhibition catalogue, Haarlem 2008, p. 18.
2.  In the accompanying brochure of the 2005 Currier Museum/National Gallery exhibition (see under Literature), the present painting is presented as a portrait of De Bray’s third wife and the date of the painting is given as 1678.
3.  In the collection of The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY.