CIRCLE OF WILLEM KEY (BREDA 1515/6-1568 ANTWERP)

We are grateful to Claire van den Donk and Rudi Ekkart for their assistance cataloguing this lot. Though no firm attribution could be established, they noted the 'excellent manner' in which '[t]he face and the hands of the sitter are treated' (private communication, 30 March 2023).

Albert Lestoque (Leser) studied law at the universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Bonn and Marburg, taking his doctorate at the last in 1917. He practiced law in Frankfurt am Main, Limburg and Wiesbaden until 1933, when he was forced to give it up due to his Jewish ancestry. In the fall of 1934, he fled with his wife and two young children to Denmark, ultimately immigrating to the United States in 1937, where Albert lectured on the evils of National Socialism. In 1941, the family moved to Denver. In 1943, an exhibition of works from his collection featuring paintings by or attributed to Hans Holbein, Govert Flinck, Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck and Jacob Adriaensz. Backer was held at the Denver Art Museum.