The Virgin and Child

This previously unrecorded work can be added to the corpus of paintings which have been convincingly attributed to the Master of the Female Half-Lengths. The style exhibited by this artist came out of the commercial tradition of painters working in Bruges and Antwerp in the early 16th century. Friedländer records him as being one of the most successful and popular painters of the opening decades of the century (M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, XII, 1975, p. 18). He further notes that the title by which the artist is known comes from the format of his compositions which are invariably of women, whether secular or religious, depicted half-length, against a dark background.

The present work can be compared to the Virgin and Child, previously in the collection of Col. William Stirling at Keir House, Scotland, sold at Christie's, London, 14 July 1978, lot 23, as well as A young woman playing a lute sold at Sotheby's, London, March 27, 1963, lot 27.