Workshop of Bernard van Orley

Art market, United Kingdom;

Carl von Hollitscher (1845–1925), Berlin, by 1914;

With Lucerne Fine Arts & Co., Lucerne, by 1927;

Otto B. Schuster, Amsterdam;

By whom sold, London, Sotheby’s, 15 July 1931, lot 119 (as Bernard van Orley), to Menken;

With Reinhardt Galleries, New York;

With F. Stern-Drey, Brussels, 1939;

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 9–11 April 1940, lot 515 (as Bernard van Orley), for 4400 Dutch guilders to Staal;

Dr. Anton Philips (1874–1951);

Thence by descent;

Until sold (‘Anton Philips, Entrepreneur & Connoisseur’), Amsterdam, Christie’s, 6 November 2007, lot 70 (as after Bernard van Orley);

Where acquired by the present owner.

G. Ring, 'Wiedergefundene Bilder aus den Sammlungen der Margarete von Österreich', in Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, 1914, vol. 7, no. 7, p. 265 (as Bernard van Orley);

U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols, Leipzig 1932, vol. XXVI, p. 49 (as perhaps associated with the Bernard van Orley Virgin and Child at that time in the collection of the Prince of Wied, Neuwied [now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa]);

G. de Boom, Marguerite d'Autriche Savoie et la pré-Renaissance, Paris and Brussels 1935, p. 142 n. 1 (as Bernard van Orley);

M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, 14 vols, Brussels 1972, vol. VIII ('Jan Gossart and Bernart van Orley'), pp. 61, 109, under no. 133, reproduced pl. 115 (as B. van Orley [?]);

M.W. Ainsworth, ‘Bernard van Orley’, in C. Bauman et al., La peintre flamande dans les musees d’Amerique du Nord, Antwerp 1992, p. 129 (as not certainly part of the same ensemble as the autograph painting in Ottawa);

C. Scailliérez, 'Van Orley et l'art du portrait', in Bernard van Orley, V. Bücken and I. De Meûter (eds), exh. cat., Brussels 2019, p. 61, n. 16 (as after Bernard van Orley);

V. Bücken, 'Vierge à l'Enfant', in Bernard van Orley, V. Bücken and I. De Meûter (eds), exh. cat., Brussels 2019, p. 158, under no. 32 (as after Bernard van Orley).

This painting follows the design of a now lost panel that once constituted the right-hand leaf of a diptych, which paired Margaret of Austria with, on the left, The Virgin and Child: a work housed today at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.¹ In the earlier twentieth century, scholars and sale catalogues alike described the present work as the missing half of this diptych, attesting to the picture's quality, especially by comparison with other copies after the composition, such as those formerly in the Lescarts collection, Mons, and the two panels which were on the art market in Munich at Julius Böhler and Heinemann.² In more recent years, however, this view has been overturned, on account of the discrepancy between the levels of the tables in front of the Virgin and Margaret of Austria if the Ottawa panel is aligned with the present painting,³ as can be noted in Max Friedländer's side-by-side reproduction of both works.⁴ Furthermore, this painting is not inscribed with the word PLACET above Margaret's head, repeated in the Lescarts collection copy, which would correspond with the VENI inscribed beneath the Christ Child's proper left hand in the Ottawa picture.

¹ Accession no. 28531; oil and mordant gilding on oak, 24 x 18 cm.; The Virgin and Child | National Gallery of Canada.

² Oil on copper, each 27 x 20 cm.; https://rkd.nl/images/46749; Oil on panel, 30.5 x 43.5 cm.; https://rkd.nl/images/46750; Oil on panel, 36 x 53 cm.; https://rkd.nl/images/46751.

³ Ainsworth 1992, p. 129.

⁴ Friedländer 1972, p. 109, no. 133, reproduced pl. 115.