The discovery of Pyramus and Thisbe

Details

LEONAERT BRAMER (DELFT 1596-1674)
The discovery of Pyramus and Thisbe
signed in monogram 'L.B.' (lower right)
oil on panel
15 ¼ x 21 ¼ in. (38.5 x 54 cm)

Provenance

The Royal Family, Poland, and by whom gifted to the following,
Prince Léon Radziwill (1880-1927), Monte Carlo (according to a label on the reverse).
Anonymous sale; Leo Spik, Berlin, 11-13 Dec 1986, lot 425.
Private collection, Germany, by 1990.
Private collection, Netherlands, by 1994.
Anonymous sale; Phillips, London, 4 July 1995, lot 70.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 16 May 1996, lot 148, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

J. Foucart, 'Le Pyrame et Thisbé de Leonaert Bramer,' Revue du Louvre et les Musées de France, XL, 1990, p. 373, fig. 7.
P. Huys Janssen, et. al., Leonaert Bramer: Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman in Rome and Delft, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle and Delft, 1994, p. 299, cat. no. S223.1.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Leonaert Bramer depicted the tragic story of Pyramus and Thisbe on at least twelve occasions. Here he represents an episode not included in the story, in Ovid's Metamorphoses (IV: 55-166); this is the moment when the deceased bodies of the ill-fated lovers are discovered by their parents. Bramer illustrates the same scene in a similar manner, on copper, in a version now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. RF 1989 7).

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