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Lot Essay
The 1810 sale of the French dealer and auctioneer, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (husband of the artist Marie-Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun), was the result of a two-year trip (1807-8) around the continent, made after Lebrun had ostensibly retired in 1806. In his catalogue, itself more a recollection of his travels, Lebrun (one suspects somewhat disingenuously, especially in light of the fact that his journey was paid for by the banker, Charles Bazin) presented his accumulation of pictures as a fortuitous chance, rather than the primary purpose of his trip ('Je n'avais d'abord d'autre intention que l'étude de divers peintres inconnus en France et dans beaucoup d'autres pays').
Whatever the purpose, however, the results were certainly remarkable: even if his Cimabue is now regarded as a work from the school of Botticelli, his Penni Portrait of a man has since been reattributed as Pontormo's Portrait of a halberdier (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum; sold, Christie's, New York, May 1989 for $35.2 million). Many other works that have retained their attributions are nowadays found in museums, including Vermeer's The Letter (New York, Frick Collection), a second Pontormo (the Portrait of a lady in the Städelsches Institut, Frankfurt), David's Philosopher (Bayeux, Musée baron Gérard), Fabre's Ulysses with the Arrows of Philoctetes (Paris, Louvre), Maratta's Rape of Europa and Preti's Martyrdom of Saint Peter (Grenoble, Musée des Beaux-Arts), as well as works in the Puschkin Museum, Moscow, and the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
When in 1823 Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853) married Anne, daughter of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, he was drawn into the world of the only British family of the time which, to use Professor Haskell's words had 'sustained a highly developed interest in the Old Masters through several generations'. In 1824, Mildmay became a partner of the great banking house, establishing a connection that was to endure until his grandson Anthony's retirement from Barings in 1940. Mildmay's grandfather-in-law, Sir Francis Baring, 1st Bt., founder of the fortune, had been an outstanding collector: so were both his elder sons, Thomas, who succeeded as second baronet and Alexander, later 1st Lord Ashburton. Sir Thomas's bachelor second son Thomas (1799-1873) was to prove even more energetic. His greatest coup, in association with the doyen of bankers of the age, Lewis Loyd, 1st Lord Overstone, and his own partner and cousin-by-marriage Mildmay, was the acquisition through the dealer Chaplin in 1846 of the celebrated collection formed by Baron Verstolk van Soelen. The collection included masterpieces by many of the greatest Dutch seventeenth century artists: Rembrandt (Margaretha Trip; London, National Gallery), de Koninck, Hobbema, Ruisdael, Steen and others, Mildmay securing, amonsgst other works, Ruisdael's Shore at Egmond (London, National Gallery) and a notable group of works by the long fashionable Italianate masters, including Berchem's Landscape with Herdsmen (sold in these Rooms, 3 December 1997, lot 19).
Mildmay's pictures eventually passed to his son Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905), who became a partner of Barings in 1856. Like so many of his mother's family, he collected pictures. True to the family tastes, he also sought out the Dutch. Thus, for example, he obtained Willem van Mieris's Owl on a Perch of 1686 (sold in these Rooms, 3 December 1997, lot 21), after it was sold at Christie's in 1875, as well as lots at the great Hamilton Palace sale in 1882, and at the Blenheim sale, also at Christie's, in 1886. However, the Baring crisis of October 1890 brought collecting to an end and on 24 June 1893 a substantial part of Mildmay's picture collection was dispersed at Christie's. That a significant number of important pictures were retained, including apparently the present work, testifies to Mildmay's continuing commitment as a collector.
Helga Wagner, in her 1971 catalogue raisonné of the works of Van der Heyden, noted that this picture was kept at the Dusseldorf Museum during the Second World War, and subsequently restituted to the Dutch Government. However, the picture does not appear in any of the Dutch National Archives or in the records of the Dusseldorf Museum. The only work by Van der Heyden to appear in those records is the View of Nijenrode now in the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, The Hague, and it would appear that Wagner confused that provenance with that of the present picture, and that Wagner's reference (and possibly also that to Pierre Landry) should therefore be discounted.
Whatever the purpose, however, the results were certainly remarkable: even if his Cimabue is now regarded as a work from the school of Botticelli, his Penni Portrait of a man has since been reattributed as Pontormo's Portrait of a halberdier (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum; sold, Christie's, New York, May 1989 for $35.2 million). Many other works that have retained their attributions are nowadays found in museums, including Vermeer's The Letter (New York, Frick Collection), a second Pontormo (the Portrait of a lady in the Städelsches Institut, Frankfurt), David's Philosopher (Bayeux, Musée baron Gérard), Fabre's Ulysses with the Arrows of Philoctetes (Paris, Louvre), Maratta's Rape of Europa and Preti's Martyrdom of Saint Peter (Grenoble, Musée des Beaux-Arts), as well as works in the Puschkin Museum, Moscow, and the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
When in 1823 Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853) married Anne, daughter of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, he was drawn into the world of the only British family of the time which, to use Professor Haskell's words had 'sustained a highly developed interest in the Old Masters through several generations'. In 1824, Mildmay became a partner of the great banking house, establishing a connection that was to endure until his grandson Anthony's retirement from Barings in 1940. Mildmay's grandfather-in-law, Sir Francis Baring, 1st Bt., founder of the fortune, had been an outstanding collector: so were both his elder sons, Thomas, who succeeded as second baronet and Alexander, later 1st Lord Ashburton. Sir Thomas's bachelor second son Thomas (1799-1873) was to prove even more energetic. His greatest coup, in association with the doyen of bankers of the age, Lewis Loyd, 1st Lord Overstone, and his own partner and cousin-by-marriage Mildmay, was the acquisition through the dealer Chaplin in 1846 of the celebrated collection formed by Baron Verstolk van Soelen. The collection included masterpieces by many of the greatest Dutch seventeenth century artists: Rembrandt (Margaretha Trip; London, National Gallery), de Koninck, Hobbema, Ruisdael, Steen and others, Mildmay securing, amonsgst other works, Ruisdael's Shore at Egmond (London, National Gallery) and a notable group of works by the long fashionable Italianate masters, including Berchem's Landscape with Herdsmen (sold in these Rooms, 3 December 1997, lot 19).
Mildmay's pictures eventually passed to his son Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905), who became a partner of Barings in 1856. Like so many of his mother's family, he collected pictures. True to the family tastes, he also sought out the Dutch. Thus, for example, he obtained Willem van Mieris's Owl on a Perch of 1686 (sold in these Rooms, 3 December 1997, lot 21), after it was sold at Christie's in 1875, as well as lots at the great Hamilton Palace sale in 1882, and at the Blenheim sale, also at Christie's, in 1886. However, the Baring crisis of October 1890 brought collecting to an end and on 24 June 1893 a substantial part of Mildmay's picture collection was dispersed at Christie's. That a significant number of important pictures were retained, including apparently the present work, testifies to Mildmay's continuing commitment as a collector.
Helga Wagner, in her 1971 catalogue raisonné of the works of Van der Heyden, noted that this picture was kept at the Dusseldorf Museum during the Second World War, and subsequently restituted to the Dutch Government. However, the picture does not appear in any of the Dutch National Archives or in the records of the Dusseldorf Museum. The only work by Van der Heyden to appear in those records is the View of Nijenrode now in the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, The Hague, and it would appear that Wagner confused that provenance with that of the present picture, and that Wagner's reference (and possibly also that to Pierre Landry) should therefore be discounted.