Follower of Rogier van der Weyden

Acquired by the father of the present owners.

The composition of this unpublished painting is known in different treatments.¹ The motif of the Virgin preparing to suckle the Child originates in designs by Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464) and ultimately depends on one of his most celebrated paintings, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Appropriate to a private devotional panel, the theme of the Virgo lactans was also adapted to the half-length format and enjoyed widespread popularity.² The type with the Virgin and Child holding an apple proliferated in Bruges towards the end of the fifteenth century and is found also in later versions with modified backgrounds. Infra-red reflectography of the present lot reveals quite extensive planning and revision of the design and a rapidly sketched background landscape (fig. 1).

In an article of 1971 Dirk De Vos classified a group of pictures that encompass the work of several masters.³ These include the Master of the Saint Ursula Legend, active during the last quarter of the fifteenth century, in whose paintings the Virgin nursing the Child is set against a gold or neutral background and is crowned by a pair of angels (foremost among the known variants is the version at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen; fig. 2);⁴ Gerard David (c. 1455–1523);⁵ Jan Provost (d. 1529);⁶ and Ambrosius Benson (1490–1550).⁷ Brussels too, where Van der Weyden ran a large workshop, saw the production of more examples that bear witness to his influence by painters such as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage – indeed it has recently been suggested that this painting may be close to one of the Embroidered Foliage masters – and the Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine; see for instance, the painting attributed to the latter in the National Museum, Stockholm (fig. 3).⁸ 

Dendrochronological investigation carried out by Ian Tyers indicates that the felling date of the tree from which this panel comes is likely to be after about 1473.⁹ 

^1 See for instance the panel with Wildenstein, Paris, in 1921, described by Friedländer as much more archaic in style, Friedländer 1967, vol. II, p. 84, no. 109a, pl. 121; also the panel, 48 x 37 cm., sold at Lempertz, Cologne, on 8 December 2020, lot 6.

² For a list of pictures that depend on designs by Van der Weyden, see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden and Brussels 1967, vol. II, nos 107–9 and Add. 138.

³ For a study and classification of the group, see Dirk De Vos, ‘De Madonna-en-Kindtypologie bij Rogier van der Weyden’, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, XIII, 1971, pp. 60–161; on the type most akin to the present work, see the lists on pp. 115–16.

⁴ GK 313; 49 x 31.5 cm., M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden and Brussels 1971, vol. VIa, no. 121; other versions are at the Worcester Art Museum, Mass., 49.5 x 30.5 cm., Friedländer 1971, vol. VIa, no. 121b.; and formerly recorded with Graefe, Berlin, 48 x 32 cm., Friedländer 1971, vol. VIa, 121a.

⁵ See for example the Virgin and Child in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, inv. 03049; oil on oak panel, 44 x 31 cm.

⁶ National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, acc. no. NG 1537; oil on panel, 35.6 x 21.3 cm.

⁷ Groeningemuseum, Bruges, inv. 0000.GRO0223.I; oil on panel, 103 x 65 cm.

⁸ NM 6179; oil on panel, 44 x 32 cm.

⁹ Dendrochronological Consultancy Report 1295, May 2021 (copy available on request).