Abraham Bloemaert (Gorinchem 1566-1651 Utrecht)

The present painting is a version of a picture given to Abraham Bloemaert in the Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, both of which relate to a drawing, datable to circa 1610-15, but later reworked, in Darmstadt (see G. Bergsträsser, Niederlandische Zeichnungen 16. Jahrhundert, Darmstadt, 1979, p. 17, no. 6, see fig. 1). As Marcel Roethlisberger has observed after inspection of the Tokyo panel, the signature is almost certainly unreliable and the picture is compromised by 'a radical, misguided restoration' (M. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemart and his Sons, Doornspijk, 1993, I, pp. 216-7, no. 278, II, fig. 411). Nevertheless, on the evidence of the Darmstadt drawing and the absence of any other version, he accepted the Tokyo painting as autograph, a conclusion that has been brought into question by the appearance of the present panel. In a private correspondence (20 January 2005,) Professor Roethlisberger suggests the present lot might be the original and dates it to circa 1620, pointing to stylistic affinities with several representations of the Virgin in treatments of Adoration of the Shepherds between 1615 and and 1623. The closest connection seems to be with the Adoration in St. Gertrudis, Utrecht (loc. cit., fig. 416).