Portrait of a man holding bluebells before a landscape, half-length

Details

The Master of 1518 (Antwerp c. 1470-c. 1527)
Portrait of a man holding bluebells before a landscape, half-length
oil on panel
13 ½ x 11 in. (34.3 x 28 cm.)

Provenance

with J. Böhler, Munich, by 1914 and until 1917.
with Steinmeyer, Paris, by 1915.
Otto Held; his sale, Cassirer, Berlin, 5 December 1929, lot 31, where acquired by
Walter Püschel, Berlin.
with Matthiesen, London, by 1946.
Anonymous sale; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 17-21 May 1949, lot 2285.
Anonymous sale; Leo Spik, Bad Kissingen, 15 June 1962, lot 166.
Heinrich Vetter (1910-2003), Mannheim; Lempertz, Cologne, 13 December 2003, lot 2, as 'Antwerpener Meister von 1518 / Meister von Hoogstraeten'.

Literature

M.J. Friedländer, 'Die Antwerpener Manieristen von 1520', Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XXXVI, 1915, p. 84, no. 75.
M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting: The Antwerp Mannerists, Adriaen Ysenbrant, XI, New York and Washington, 1974, p. 77, no. 102, pl. 87.

Exhibited

London, Matthiesen, Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters, November-December 1946, no. 16.
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten and Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, ExtravagAnt!: een kwarteeuw Antwerpse Schilderkunst herontdekt 1500-1530, 15 October 2005-9 April 2006, no. 86.

Lot Essay

The Master of 1518, variously identified as Jan van Dornicke and Jan Mertens II, was a leading painter in Antwerp during the early sixteenth century and an important exponent of the so-called ‘Antwerp Mannerist’ school. The artist's moniker, 'The Master of 1518', was first put forward by Max Friedländer, after the date inscribed on the painted wings of a carved wooden altarpiece of the Life of the Virgin in the Marienkirche, Lübeck. Over time a number of works have been grouped under this name. The present painting is the only independent portrait that can be securely attributed to the artist, whose work consists primarily of altarpieces.

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