Gerard Wigmana

Possibly Sir Thomas Sebright, 4th Baronet of Beechwood Park (1692–1736), or Thomas Sclater, later Bacon (c. 1664–1736);

Possibly their posthumous sale ('Those valuable collections of the Hon. Sir Thomas Seabright, Bart. and of Thomas Sclater Bacon, Esq.'), London, 17 May 1737, lot 87;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Sotheby's, 30 June 2020, lot 55;

Where acquired by the present owner.

Possibly B. van Haersma Buma, 'Gerardus Wigmana. De Friese Raphael', in De Vrije Fries, XLIX, 1969, p. 63.

Nicknamed 'the Frisian Raphael’ for his skill in emulating Raphael’s style of smooth painting, Gerard Wigmana was a Dutch artist born in the small Frisian town of Workum. He travelled across Europe developing his painterly practice, studying at the Royal Academy in Paris for a year, before moving to Rome in 1699. He lived in the city for about three years, before returning to the Netherlands and settling in Amsterdam in around 1709, where he remained active as a painter until the end of his life.

A smaller, comparable version of this composition was sold in 2007 as attributed to Wigmana.¹

¹ Anonymous sale, Stuttgart, Nagel Auktionen Stuttgart, 19 September 2007, lot 642.