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Lot Essay
Active in Delft from at least 1627 until he settled in The Hague around 1646 or 1647, Christiaen van Couwenbergh may have spent a formative few years in Utrecht in the early 1620s, where he came under the influence of the city's Caravaggesque painters, including Dirck van Baburen and Gerrit van Honthorst. Like Honthorst, van Couwenbergh received important commissions from the House of Orange, including at the Palace of Honselaarsdijk (1638), Huis ter Nieuwburg (1642-1643), Noordeinde Palace (1647) and the exceptional Oranjezaal at the Huis ten Bosch (1648-1651).
The present work probably dates from the later period of Couwenbergh's activity, after his return to The Hague. Tommaso Borgogelli acknowledges the difficulty of dating van Couwenbergh's works, but suggests it was completed c. 1650, on the basis of similarities with two signed and dated works; the first, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, dated 1653, and the second, sold at Koller, 1 October 2020, lot 6027, dated 1657.
We are grateful to Tommaso Borgogelli for endorsing the attribution to van Couwenbergh on the basis of photographs.
The present work probably dates from the later period of Couwenbergh's activity, after his return to The Hague. Tommaso Borgogelli acknowledges the difficulty of dating van Couwenbergh's works, but suggests it was completed c. 1650, on the basis of similarities with two signed and dated works; the first, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, dated 1653, and the second, sold at Koller, 1 October 2020, lot 6027, dated 1657.
We are grateful to Tommaso Borgogelli for endorsing the attribution to van Couwenbergh on the basis of photographs.