Live Auction 3052The I.Q. van Regteren Altena Collection Part II. Dutch and Flemish Drawings from 1500-1900
Govert Flinck (Cleves 1615-1660 Amsterdam)
Lot 164

Govert Flinck (Cleves 1615-1660 Amsterdam)

Portrait of a painter, perhaps a self portrait (recto); A Biblical scene (verso)

Closed10 December 2014

Price Realised

EUR 31,250

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Govert Flinck (Cleves 1615-1660 Amsterdam)
Portrait of a painter, perhaps a self portrait (recto); A Biblical scene (verso)
pen and brown ink, traces of black chalk at lower left, brown ink framing lines
6½ x 5 5/8 in. (16.6 x 13.6 cm.)

Vicomte Bernard d'Hendecourt; Sotheby's, London, 9 May 1929, no. 248, as Rembrandt School; where purchased by I.Q. van Regteren Altena for 242 guilders (Inventory book: '710. t. Rembrandt school, schilders portret').

Specialist note

The sitter in this drawing is shown holding a palette, maulstick and brush, and the angle of the eyes suggests that it is a self-portrait. In the 1976-77 catalogue, he was identified as Govert Flinck, on the basis of similarities to the self-portrait of Flinck shown in the left background of The Civic Guard of Amsterdam celebrating the Signing of the Peace of Westphalia (1648; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

In a letter dated 2 December 1932 to I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Frits Lugt suggested the attribution of this drawing to Flinck comparing it to the Woman Seated at a Table in the Louvre (Sumowski, 1981, op. cit., no. 967x). Sumowski does not believe this to be a self-portrait and suggests a date of circa 1655.