Putti making music and dancing

Details

Hans Rottenhammer (Munich 1564/5-1625 Augsburg)
Putti making music and dancing
with a red-wax seal showing an encircled unicorn (on the reverse)
oil on copper
9¼ x 12¾ in. (23.5 x 32.5 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Nicolaas Cornelis Cheeus, Antwerp, as the 'Kinderdans gedaen by Rottenhamer', by whom bequeathed in 1620 to his widow,
Anna de Schott, Antwerp, valued at 90 guilders (Lb. 15-00-0) in 1621 (P. Smit, called P. Fabri, Inventaris van het sterfhuis van Nicolaas Cornelis Cheeus, echtgenoot van Anna de Schott (1621, 35 juli-1622, 4 mei), Stadsarchief te Antwerpen, Notaris P. Fabri 1491 (1621-4).
Griffier Hendrick Fagel I (1706-1790), The Hague, by 1752, 'Rottenhamer and Breugel', and by descent to
Griffier Hendrick Fagel III (1765-1838), later Baron Fagel, The Hague; Peter Coxe, Burrell & Foster, London, 23 May 1801, lot 14, as 'Rothenhamer and Breughel' (21 gns. to the following)
Lord George Granville Leveson-Gower, subsequently 3rd Earl Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford, created 1st Duke of Sutherland (1758-1833), and by descent at Stafford House to
Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, subsequently Egerton, created 1st Earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857), and by descent at Stafford House, renamed Bridgewater House, to
John Sutherland Egerton, 5th Earl of Ellesmere, subsequently 6th Duke of Sutherland (1915-2000); Christie's, London, 18 October 1946, lot 142, as 'Johann Rottenhammer' (55 gns. to the following)
with J. Singer and W. Burchard, London, 1947.
By descent from the mother of the present owner.

Literature

G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, etc., The Hague, 1752, p. 406, as 'Rottenhamer en Breugel'.
J. Britton, Catalogue raisonné of the Pictures ... in the Gallery of Cleveland House, London, 1808, p. 120, no. 123, as 'John Rothenamer'.
Catalogue of the Pictures ... at Cleveland House, London, 1810, p. 25, no. 123, as 'Rottenhamer'.
W.Y. Ottley and P.W. Tomkins, Engravings of the Most Noble the Marquis of Stafford's Collection of Pictures in London, etc., London, 1818, III, no. 5, pl. 1, fig. 5, as 'John Rothenamer'.
J. Young, A Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures ... at Cleveland House, London, London, 1825, no. 152, pl. 57, as 'John Rothenhamer'.
Catalogue of the Pictures ... at Bridgewater House, London, 1830, p. 22, no. 121, as 'Rottenhamer'.
R. Peltzer, 'Hans Rottenhamer', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlugen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 33/5, 1916, p. 345, verzeichnis I, no. 36, as 'Hans Rottenhammer'.
Catalogue of the collection of pictures and statuary ... at Bridgewater House, Cleveland Square, St. James's, London, 1926, no. 25, as 'Johann Rottenhamer'.
H. Schlichtenmaier, Studien zum Werk Hans Rottenhammers des Aeltern (1564-1625), Tübingen, 1988, p. 419, no. K44.

Engraved

J. Romney (W.M. Craig delin.), mezzotint, in W.Y. Ottley and P.W. Tomkins, loc. cit.
J. Young, mezzotint, loc. cit.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

We are grateful to Dr. Vera Lüpkes for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. A variant of this painting, given to Hans Rottenhammer and Jan Brueghel I, is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. No. 753). Several other variants with differences in the details are also known (see T. Fusenig in H. Borggrefe et al., Hans Rottenhammer, Lemgo and Prague, 2008, pp. 156-7).

The Fagel family of The Hague, several generations of which held the title of griffier (registry clerk) at the Dutch States General, assembled one of the most celebrated art collections - in 1763 it was described as 'superieur à tous les autres' in Holland, while Sir Joshua Reynolds spoke of its 'walls hung round with thoughts'. It later formed a nucleus of the Bridgewater Collection, of which Dr. Waagen wrote, 'In variety of contents it takes the first rank among all the collections of paintings in England' (G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, II, 1854, p. 25).

We are also grateful to Drs. Luuk Pijl for independently confirming the attribution to Hans Rottenhammer, and for suggesting that the landscape was painted by an associate of Studio of Jan Breughel I.

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