Attributed to Nicolas Régnier and Workshop

Lord Overstone, Wickham Park, Bromley;
The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres;
His sale, London, Christie's, 11 October 1946, lot 56 (as Domenichino);
Where acquired by Milton Galleries, London;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 7 October 1993, lot 95 (as Régnier);
Where acquired by the present collector. 

A. Lemoine, Nicolas Régnier, Paris 2007, p. 311, cat. no. A 151, reproduced (as Workshop of Régnier).

This elegant portrait derives from a full-length Allegory of Fortitude by Nicolas Régnier now in the Ca' Rezzonico in Venice.¹  In that painting, a woman is shown seated, holding up a chalice, with a sleeping lion at her feet (a nod both to the allegorical subject and to Venice itself).  Though Régnier is most often associated with Rome and the Caravaggisti, he moved to Venice in 1626 and remained there for the rest of his life.  The first year of his stay he painted a group of allegories, including the aforementioned picture, which are considered some of his most successful Venetian compositions. 

When sold in 1993, Leonard Slatkes confirmed the attribution to Nicolas Regnier after viewing the painting in the original.  Dr. Annick Lemoine has more recently suggested the painting is a workshop version, and most likely a fragment given the larger composition of the prime.


1. Lemoine 2007, cat. no. 151, reproduced p. 311.