FLEMISH SCHOOL | Portrait of a man, bust-length

A. Vollon (painter);
Prof. Jan Bleuland;
His deceased sale, Utrecht, Lamme, 6 May 1839, lot 30 (as Brouwer);
E. Warneck, 1911;
His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 27-28 May 1926, lot 22 (as presumed self-portrait by Brouwer);
With Kleinberger, Paris;
Whence acquired by Julius Böhler, Munich, on 15 September 1928;
By whom sold to Fischer, Lucerne, on 29 August 1936;
With Fischer between 1936 and 1957;
Sale, Lucerne, Fischer, 25-29 June 1957, lot 2560, where acquired by the present owner (as self-portrait by Brouwer).

Paris, Salle du Jeu de Paume, Grands et Petits Maîtres Hollandais, 1911, no. 10;
Antwerp, Exposition International Coloniale, Maritime et d'Art Flammand, 1930;
Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, Exposition des Tableaux de grands Maîtres, 17 March - 30 June 1956, no. 2 (as presumed self-portrait by Brouwer).

A. Dayot, Grands et Petits Maîtres Hollandais, Paris 1911, cat. no. 11;
Festschrift Friedländer, 1927 (recorded as Warneck collection);
Exposition International Coloniale, Maritime et d'Art Flammand, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp 1930, p. 14.

This picture is executed on a single board which is flat, stable, and cradled on the reverse. The picture presents very well to the naked eye and is bright and clean. UV light reveals a slightly uneven but clean varnish and there are a few small scattered retouches in the gray background, but the flesh tones of the figure are very well preserved with retention of impasto. There is some slightly raised craquelure in the top and bottom register of the composition. There is some apparent thinness in the woodgrains of the sitters hair and in his shirt. This, however, is also a function of the painting being purposely thinly painted. In a carved ebonized wood frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This engaging bust-length portrait of a curly-haired man has captured the attention of the major scholars of Flemish art for over a century. With its direct gaze and resemblance to the artist, it was long thought to be a self-portrait by Adriaen Brouwer (1605 - 1638), but the painting is now understood to be the work of another Flemish painter with a style similar to Brouwer's, and perhaps not a true portrait of Brouwer. The previous attribution was based on similarities between a resemblance between this sitter and the portrait of Brouwer by Anthony van Dyck, later engraved by Schelte à Bolswert for Van Dyck’s Iconography. Even without an identifiable artist or sitter, the small panel is a representative example of 17^th century Flemish portraiture. At the painting’s first appearance on the art market in Utrecht in 1839, it was attributed to Brouwer but described as a “portrait of a man.” By the 1926 sale of E. Warneck’s collection, to which this picture belonged, it was “presumed” to be a self-portrait by Brouwer. In an expertise letter dated 16 December 1928, Ludwig Burchard notes that even during that auction, he firmly believed the picture to be Brouwer’s self portrait, and felt that cleaning the panel only strengthened his case. He connected the portrait to a drawing of Brouwer by Jan Lievens and dated it to the end of Brouwer’s career, just before his death in 1638. At the 1956 Fischer exhibition, the painting was again labeled “presumed” self-portrait, but a year later in the Fischer sale, it sold as Brouwer in full. Julius Held expressed his admiration for the picture in a letter dated 20 October 1963, calling it an “excellent work,” and as late as 1984, scholars of Flemish art confirmed the attribution to Brouwer and the resemblance with Van Dyck’s portrait of Brouwer.