Lot Essay
Surprisingly little is known about Cornelis de Beer, who was enrolled as a master in the Utrecht painters' guild in 1616. He is recorded in 1630 in Spain, where he executed a Triumph of the Holy Sacrament in the cathedral at Murcia, and where his daughter Maria Eugenia was active as an engraver in Madrid in 1643. His removal to Spain, where artistic activity is comparatively poorly documented, may account for the paucity of information about his life and the small number of works so far identified. The present picture also has a Spanish connection, as a copy is in the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid; the date, however, is earlier than de Beer's known activity there and the style is that of a Utrecht master influenced by Terbrugghen, who had returned to his native city from Italy in 1615. A signed Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Baptist was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 4 June 1987, lot 39.