Saint Jerome in his study, a landscape beyond

The composition derives ultimately from Drer's Saint Jerome (now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon) painted in 1521 for Ruy Fernández de Almeida, Ambassador of King John III of Portugal. Van Cleve adhered closely to this prototype in at least two autograph versions: that in the Hanover collection at Pattensen, and the picture formerly in the collection of the Viscounts Camrose, sold in these Rooms, 3 December 1997, lot 46 (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, IXa, H. Pauwels ed., Leiden, 1972, p. 58, no. 39a and 39b, pl. 57). The popularity of the composition is attested to by numerous copies, the majority of which depend on the Camrose picture.

While the present composition broadly adheres to the Camrose and Hanover pictures in the rendering of the Saint and some of the details on the foreground ledge, it departs most obviously from the prototype in the inclusion of a larger and more ornate architectural background and a landscape with Saint Jerome, in the style of Joachim Patenir, seen through an open casement on the left side.