Artus Wolffort

Christ at the Pool of Bethesda

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Lot Closed

July 7, 01:11 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collection

Artus Wolffort

Antwerp 1581 - 1641

Christ at the Pool of Bethesda

oil on canvas

unframed: 136 x 198.2 cm.; 53½ x 78 in.

framed: 167.3 x 230.6 cm.; 65⅞ x 90¾ in.

By tradition, the Vermeer-huis, Delft, until 1938, when acquired by
Ernst Proehl, Amsterdam;
With A. Staal, Amsterdam;
From whom acquired by the previous owner before 31 December 1965;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 25 April 2008, lot 10, where acquired.

A. Berendsen, Prisma der bijbelse kunst, Delft 1952, no. 185 (as Gaspar de Crayer);
M. Díaz Padrón, ‘Un lienzo de Artus Wolffort en la catedral de Sevilla: la piscina de Bethesda’, in Laboratorio de Arte, vol. 25, 2013, p. 904, reproduced in colour p. 907, fig. 5.

Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Bijbelse Kunst, 17 May – 12 August 1952, no. 185 (as Gaspar de Crayer).

This composition was painted by a number of artists in Wolffort's circle, including Pieter van Mol (1599–1650), Otto van Veen (1556–1629) and Claes Moeyart (1592–1655).¹In private correspondence with the previous owner (31 December 1965), Justus Müller Hofstede proposed that the young Rubens may have been the inventor of the design, perhaps shortly before 1600, during the artist's first Antwerp period. Wolffort painted at least seven versions of this composition, including one with an extended curved top for the cathedral in Seville;² another sold at Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 127; and a larger iteration, which was bequeathed to the Gallery of Ontario in 1983.³ A further version was published by Michael Jaffé as by Pieter van Mol.⁴

When this painting last appeared on the market in 2008 the attribution was endorsed, on the basis of photographs, by Professor Hans Vlieghe, who noted that ‘it is a version of outstanding quality’.

¹ For a list of the recorded versions, see H. Vlieghe, ‘Zwischen van Veen und Rubens: Artus Wolffort (1581–1641), ein vergessener Antwerpen Maler’, in Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, vol. XXXIX, 1977, pp. 107–8, notes 22–23, reproduced plates 26–28.

² https://rkd.nl/explore/images/240400

³ https://ago.ca/collection/object/83/304

⁴ M. Jaffé, ‘Exhibitions for the Rubens Year – II’, in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXX, March 1978, p. 139, reproduced fig. 11.