The Virgin and Child with an extensive landscape beyond

This is a version of a composition known in two other paintings from the circle of Joachim Patinir, the first exhibited in the landmark 1902 Bruges exhibition Primitifs flamands, no. 211; the second, formerly in the collection of Countess Sierstopff, Eltville (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, IX, part II, Leiden and Brussels, 1973, pl. 219, nos. 227 and 227a respectively); the traditional attribution of the first to Patinir was turned down by R.A. Koch, (see Joachim Patinir, Princeton, 1968, p. 21, note 14). The present picture is closest to the latter work, sharing a similar landscape background (including the depiction of Jerusalem), and the bare ledge in the foreground, as well as the Virgin's mantle draped around her shoulders rather than over her head. Another related painting with, the same, distinctive arrangement of Virgin and Child was offered for sale, Christies, London, 5 July 2007, lot 74, formerly with Hallsborough Gallery, 1956. This picture had traditionally been attributed to Barent van Orley, but seems to bear a closer affinity with the Bruges tradition influenced by the work of David and his circle. Patinir's links with painting in Bruges- indeed it may be that he actually worked there, possibly in David's workshop, sometime before his becoming a Master in Antwerp in 1515- suggested that the ex-Hallsborough picture was painted in that city. If so, the relative rarity of the figural motif might suggest that the group of panels all derive from a work of Patinir's earliest maturity, possibly even painted in Bruges.