CORNELIS SCHUT Antwerp 1629 - Seville 1685 Cain killing Abel Crying for the death of Abel Oil on canvas (two) Measurements 42 x 60 cm each On the back label of the Ministry of Public Instruction. General Directorate of Fine Arts. Central Board of Artistic Treasure.
Artist: In the Style of Cornelis Schut III (c. 1629-1685). Title/Subject: The Annunciation. Unsigned. Medium/Ground: Oil on copper. Size: 9" x 6 10/16" (in European frame, 18 3/8" x 16 1/2"). Condition: scattered spots of old in-painting in the background, some frame abrasion; the copper plate is mounted on a wood board (9 1/2" x 7 1/2") with scattered wormholes;some losses to frame. Provenance: Private Collection, Northern California.
CORNELIS SCHUT Antwerp 1629 - Seville 1685 Cain killing Abel Crying for the death of Abel Oil on canvas (two) Measurements 42 x 60 cm each On the back label of the Ministry of Public Instruction. General Directorate of Fine Arts. Central Board of Artistic Treasure.
CORNELIS SCHUT Antwerp 1629 - Seville 1685 Cain killing Abel Crying for the death of Abel Oil on canvas (two) Measurements 42 x 60 cm each On the back label of the Ministry of Public Instruction. General Directorate of Fine Arts. Central Board of Artistic Treasure.
The story of Queen Tomyris is told, among others, by Herodotus (Historiae I, 205-214). Tomyris was the queen of the Massagetae and was attacked by the Persian king Cyrus II, who wanted to annex her kingdom to his own. Cyrus was eventually defeated in battle, and Tomyris drenched his severed head in blood to quench his thirst for blood, as she had previously promised him. The story was an example of female heroism in ancient times. Queen Tomyris sits on a raised throne in a white dress and a golden mantle edged with ermine, scepter in hand, she gives the order to immerse the head of Cyrus, which is held by a young man in front of her, in blood. Two court ladies watch the scene to the queen's right. The lady in the front is wearing a beautiful golden robe, the blonde lady in the back is hugging her companion to see what is going on. An old woman stands behind them. On the left, a man in a red robe with a fur cap frames the composition. In the background are other members of the court, an elderly bearded man in a turban, and two soldiers whose heads are only visible. A tall red curtain forms a kind of canopy over the throne. On the left edge of the painting and behind the man in the turban are twisted columns. The antique model comes from St. Peter's in Rome and was known from engravings. Cornelis Schut, a student of Peter Paul Rubens, a master in Antwerp since 1618, painted decorations for the arrival of the cardinal Ferdinand in Ghent in 1635 together with other artists. He is one of the most important Flemish baroque painters
The seated Baby Jesus crowns his mother, who tenderly embraces him with her left hand and bows her head to her little son. The Madonna is wearing a blue dress with a red cloak, the baby Jesus is naked except for his diaper. The crowning of the mother by Jesus Christ is iconographically very unusual. Cornelis Schut first used this motif on his high altar for the Jesuit church of St. Carolus-Borromeus in Antwerp from 1639-1640. This altarpiece was an important commission, Schut's painting served as a replacement for Peter Paul Rubens's paintings of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. The figure of the Baby Jesus in this painting is similar to the figure in the altarpiece, except for the position of the feet. Baby Jesus stands in the altar picture and sits in this picture. The original idea of the Madonna being crowned by baby Jesus was taken into a smaller image and reinterpreted in terms of genre.
The story of Queen Tomyris is told, among others, by Herodotus (Historiae I, 205-214). Tomyris was the queen of the Massagetae and was attacked by the Persian king Cyrus II, who wanted to annex her kingdom to his own. Cyrus was eventually defeated in battle, and Tomyris drenched his severed head in blood to quench his thirst for blood, as she had previously promised him. The story was an example of female heroism in ancient times. Queen Tomyris sits on a raised throne in a white dress and a golden mantle edged with ermine, scepter in hand, she gives the order to immerse the head of Cyrus, which is held by a young man in front of her, in blood. Two court ladies watch the scene to the queen's right. The lady in the front is wearing a beautiful golden robe, the blonde lady in the back is hugging her companion to see what is going on. An old woman stands behind them. On the left, a man in a red robe with a fur cap frames the composition. In the background are other members of the court, an elderly bearded man in a turban, and two soldiers whose heads are only visible. A tall red curtain forms a kind of canopy over the throne. On the left edge of the painting and behind the man in the turban are twisted columns. The antique model comes from St. Peter's in Rome and was known from engravings. Cornelis Schut, a student of Peter Paul Rubens, a master in Antwerp since 1618, painted decorations for the arrival of the cardinal Ferdinand in Ghent in 1635 together with other artists. He is one of the most important Flemish baroque painters
Oil on canvas, framed measurements: 120 x 105 cm. Canvas measures: 106 x 81 cm. Son of a Flemish military engineer established in Seville, in 1653 he married a sister-in-law of the sculptor José de Arce, who acted as his guarantor in the painter examination letter approved on January 8, 1654 by Sebastián de Llanos y Valdés and Francisco Terrón . Only a year later he received the first of a long list of apprentices who, to a large extent, were to be directed towards the gilding and polychrome of baroque altarpieces, a task that he himself must have carried out in the service of his brother-in-law. Already in the year 1660 he was counted among the founders of the Academy established by Sevillian painters in the Lonja house, holding the position of prosecutor. In 1666 he was elected consul of the institution and in 1670 president, re-elected four years later, Being, according to Ceán Bermúdez, one of those who most generously contributed to its support, paying the model's salary out of his pocket on many occasions and offering prizes to apprentices. On September 18, 1685, after a long illness, he dictated his will, declaring himself solemnly poor. Cornelis Shut III addressed various genres, including still life, and whose main recipients were private clients and in some cases merchants, which explains the dispersion of his work, with copies preserved in Elorrio (Vizcaya) and Álava (Inmaculada de la Iglesia Antoñana parish). This would also explain why, according to Ceán Bermúdez, there were many in his time the works preserved in Seville in private hands, while only one public one was known, which was an Immaculate Conception, already cited by Palomino, placed in an altarpiece in the Puerta de Carmona. Like so many other Spanish painters, Schut must have addressed this issue on numerous occasions, attributing to him, among others, the copies of the church of San Isidoro in Seville and of Jesús Nazareno in Chiclana de la Frontera, as well as a version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. with a strong Zurbaran accent. Reference bibliography: Alonso de la Sierra, Lorenzo y Quiles, Fernando, «New works by Cornelio Schut el Joven», Norba-Arte, XVIII-XIX (1998-199), pp. 83-105; Valdivieso, E. and Serrera, JM, The time of Murillo. Background and consequences of his painting, exhibition catalogue, Palacio de Aranjuez, 1982, Legal Deposit SE 225-1982. Attributing to him, among others, the copies of the church of San Isidoro in Seville and Jesús Nazareno in Chiclana de la Frontera, as well as a version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville with a strong Zurbaraneque accent. Reference bibliography: Alonso de la Sierra, Lorenzo y Quiles, Fernando, «New works by Cornelio Schut el Joven», Norba-Arte, XVIII-XIX (1998-199), pp. 83-105; Valdivieso, E. and Serrera, JM, The time of Murillo. Background and consequences of his painting, exhibition catalogue, Palacio de Aranjuez, 1982, Legal Deposit SE 225-1982. Attributing to him, among others, the copies of the church of San Isidoro in Seville and Jesús Nazareno in Chiclana de la Frontera, as well as a version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville with a strong Zurbaraneque accent. Reference bibliography: Alonso de la Sierra, Lorenzo y Quiles, Fernando, «New works by Cornelio Schut el Joven», Norba-Arte, XVIII-XIX (1998-199), pp. 83-105; Valdivieso, E. and Serrera, JM, The time of Murillo. Background and consequences of his painting, exhibition catalogue, Palacio de Aranjuez, 1982, Legal Deposit SE 225-1982. «New works by Cornelio Schut the Younger», Norba-Arte, XVIII-XIX (1998-199), pp. 83-105; Valdivieso, E. and Serrera, JM, The time of Murillo. Background and consequences of his painting, exhibition catalogue, Palacio de Aranjuez, 1982, Legal Deposit SE 225-1982. «New works by Cornelio Schut the Younger», Norba-Arte, XVIII-XIX (1998-199), pp. 83-105; Valdivieso, E. and Serrera, JM, The time of Murillo. Background and consequences of his painting, exhibition catalogue, Palacio de Aranjuez, 1982, Legal Deposit SE 225-1982.
CORNELIO SCHUT (Antwerp, 1629 - Seville, 1685). "Immaculate Conception", ca. 1680. Oil on canvas, re-draped. Attached is a study by Don Enrique Valdivieso. Measurements: 158 x 107 cm; 170,5 x 120 cm (frame). The theme of the Immaculate Conception, very frequent in the Spanish art of the 17th century, became one of the national identity signs of Spain as a catholic country. It is one of the most genuinely local themes in Spanish Baroque painting, given that Spain was the main defender of this mystery and the country that fought most insistently to make it a dogma of faith. In this context, numerous artists and intellectuals worked to construct a clear iconography that would help to spread the Immaculate Conception, combining symbolism and popular fervour. The composition of this particular image of the Immaculate Conception is clearly derived from Murillo's Immaculate Conception of the Venerables, although it is not an exact copy, with personal contributions in the arrangement of the white tunic and blue cloak. However, when it came to depicting the numerous angels surrounding Mary, Schut favoured expressions and models closer to Valdés. It may be suggested that this work was executed around 1680 as the faces of both the Immaculate Conception and the angels surrounding her are aesthetically close to the representation he made. Schut de Santa Teresa de Jesús. Due to its stylistic characteristics, this work can be included in the Sevillian school of the late 17th century, specifically in relation to the style of Cornelius Schut, a painter of Flemish origin who settled in Seville around 1645. Schut's style reveals stylistic traits typical of the Flemish school inherited from his native land and from the teachings he received from his father, who was also a painter, and from other artistic trends such as the painting of Murillo and Valdés Leal. Antonio Palomino was noted for his skills as a portraitist and draughtsman, which may have led to his election as president of the Academy, and the drawings by his hand that have survived show a fluidity and liveliness of line close to that of Murillo, to whom they have sometimes been attributed. Among his clients were the chapter of Seville cathedral, which commissioned from him the effigies of the venerable Contreras and Sister Francisca Dorotea for the engravings of them that were made during the canonisation process promoted by the chapter, as well as the Portrait of Don Antonio Paíno, who died in 1669, for the gallery of Sevillian archbishops in the Biblioteca Colombina.
Signed and dated on the lower left-hand side Provenance: - Private collection in Málaga, acquired in 1978 in Vélez-Málaga Bibliography: - Clavijo García, A., "Obras inéditas de Cornelio Schut en colecciones particulares malagueñas", Boletín de Arte, nº3, Málaga, 1982, pp. 93-99 -V.AA., "Sevilla en el siglo XVII", Exposición Salas del Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares, December 1983 - January 1984, Sevilla, p. 229, P.33 . Oil on canvas. 190 x 151 cm
Signed and dated on the lower left-hand side Provenance: -Private collection Málaga, acquired in 1978 in Vélez-Málaga Bibliography: - Clavijo García, A., "Obras inéditas de Cornelio Schut en colecciones particulares malagueñas", Boletín de Arte, nº3, Málaga, 1982, pp. 93-99 -V.AA., "Sevilla en el siglo XVII", Exposición Salas del Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares, December 1983 - January 1984, Sevilla, p.229, P.33 Oil on canvas. 190 x 151 cm
Das Martyrium des Heiligen Georg SCHUT II, CORNELIS (NACH) (1608 Antwerpen - 1636 Rom) Öl auf Metall. L. u. undeutlich monogrammiert (möglicherweise "CS"). Min. Kratzer. 38,5 x 31 cm. Rahmen. Vgl. das seitenverkehrte und 375 x 292 cm große Gemälde des Cornelis Schut II im Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Inv. /Kat. Nr. 327) in Antwerpen (siehe: https://rkd.nl/explore/images/32951) .
Atribuido a Cornelis Schut (Amberes, 1629 - Sevilla, 1685) Inmaculada. Óleo sobre lienzo. Se adjunta informe de Don Enrique Valdivieso donde indica que "la obra presenta el estilo artístico de Cornelis Schut en la plasmación de los ángeles que rodean a María modelos cercanos a Valdes Leal que le influyó en su obra". La expresión del rostro de la Virgen como los ángeles son próximos a los que aparecen en la representación de Santa Teresa de Jesús conservada en la capilla de la Catedral de Cádiz. Cornelis Schut pintor de origen flamenco establecido en Sevilla hacia 1645, fue uno de los artistas más activos e importantes del momento. En su estilo artístico confluyen tres tendencias, la flamenca por su lugar de origen y las enseñanzas de su padre el pintor Peter Schut y las influencias de Murillo y Valdés Leal, artistas destacados en la Sevilla de su tiempo. Reentelado. 158 x 107 cm.
Atribuido a Cornelis Schut (Amberes, 1629 - Sevilla, 1685) Inmaculada. Óleo sobre lienzo. Se adjunta informe de Don Enrique Valdivieso donde indica que "la obra presenta el estilo artístico de Cornelis Schut en la plasmación de los ángeles que rodean a María modelos cercanos a Valdes Leal que le influyó en su obra". La expresión del rostro de la Virgen como los ángeles son próximos a los que aparecen en la representación de Santa Teresa de Jesús conservada en la capilla de la Catedral de Cádiz. Cornelis Schut pintor de origen flamenco establecido en Sevilla hacia 1645, fue uno de los artistas más activos e importantes del momento. En su estilo artístico confluyen tres tendencias, la flamenca por su lugar de origen y las enseñanzas de su padre el pintor Peter Schut y las influencias de Murillo y Valdés Leal, artistas destacados en la Sevilla de su tiempo. Reentelado. 158 x 107 cm.
Huile sur toile marouflée sur toile "La Conversion de Saint Paul". Attribué à Cornelis Schut (1629-1685). Ecole anversoise. Epoque: XVIIème. Dim.:75,5x102,5cm.
SCHUT, CORNELIS III (Antwerp, circa 1629 - 1685 Seville), ATTRIBUTED The Ascension with angles and saints. Pen and brown and black ink, partially with grey wash. 45.6 x 34.2 cm (the upper section rounded). Framed. Provenance: - Sotheby's New York, Jan 2010, Lot No.62 - Ansorena, Madrid, May 2010, Lot No. 133. --------------- SCHUT, CORNELIS III (Antwerpen, um 1629 - 1685 Sevilla), ZUGESCHRIEBEN Christi Himmelfahrt mit Engeln und Heiligen. Feder in Braun und Schwarz, partiell grau laviert. 45,6 x 34,2 cm (der obere Bildteil gerundet). Gerahmt. Provenienz: - Sotheby's New York, Januar 2010, Lot Nr.62. - Ansorena, Madrid, Mai 2010, Lot.Nr. 133.
Cornelis Schut III (Antwerp ca. 1629-Sevilla, 1685), entourage of, Madonna with Child and Saint-Anthony, oil on copper Dim.: 46 x 37 cm (the frame) Dim.: 28 x 19,5 cm (the painting) Provenance: The Van Herck collection, Antwerp. We have more lots available for bidding on on our website only, see www.rm-auctions.com. Both auctions are being held simultaneously, but the extra lots are not available during our live auction nor on this platform. Condition reports and high resolution pictures are available on our website at www.rm-auctions.com. Further questions are always welcome at info@rm-auctions.com
CORNELIS SCHUT III (Amberes, 1629-Sevilla, 1685) Virgen Inmaculada Óleo sobre pizarra de 39.5 x 30.5. Con restos de firma o inscripción: 'C ..rnelio Sch../F/...'
Attributed to SCHUT, CORNELIS III (Antwerp, circa 1629 - 1685 Seville) The ascent of Christ into Heaven with angels and saints. Brown and black pen, with some grey wash. 45.6 x 34.2 cm (upper part rounded). Framed. Provenance: - Sotheby's New York, Jan 2010, Lot. 62 - Ansorena, Madrid, May 2010, Lot. 133 SCHUT, CORNELIS III (Antwerpen, um 1629 - 1685 Sevilla), zugeschrieben. Christi Himmelfahrt mit Engeln und Heiligen. Feder in Braun und Schwarz, partiell grau laviert. 45,6 x 34,2 cm (der obere Bildteil gerundet). Gerahmt. Provenienz: - Sotheby's New York, Januar 2010, Lot Nr.62 - Ansorena, Madrid, Mai 2010, Lot.Nr. 133
Attributed to Cornelis Schut Antwerp 1629 - Seville 1685 Christ Served by the Angels Drawing in watered-down ink on paperDrawing in watered-down ink on paper. The child angels at the sides of the compsition share the features and the style of those that appear in ""La imposición de la casulla a San Ildefonso"", a drawing by Schut originally in the royal collection, conserved in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (nº inv. D00200) 22.6x30 cm Atribuido a Cornelis Schut Amberes 1629 - Sevilla 1685 Cristo servido por los ángeles Dibujo a la tinta aguada sobre papel Dibujo a la tinta aguada sobre papel. Los ángeles niños de los extremos de la composición comparten la fisonomía y el estilo de los que aparecen en "La imposición de la casulla a San Ildefonso", dibujo de Schut procedente de la colección real, conservado en el Museo del Prado, Madrid (nº inv. D00200) 22,6x30 cm
Cornelis SCHUT III (Anvers 1629-Séville 1685) Sainte Giuliana Plume et encre brune, lavis brun sur traits de crayon noir 20,5 x 14 cm Titré en bas à droite (Pliures, petites taches et petit manque en bas à gauche) On connaît un autre dessin de même sujet de Schut III (vente anonyme, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 21-22 novembre 1989, lot 107, repr. comme Cornelis Schut). Cornelis Schut III est surtout connu pour ses tableaux réalisés en Espagne, où il arrive vers 1660. Notre dessin est caractéristique de cette période de l'artiste
THE PROPERTY OF A CALIFORNIA FAMILY CORNELIS SCHUT III (Flemish, 1629-1685) Shepherd and Archangel in an Extensive Landscape, circa 1668 Oil on canvas 33-1/4 x 41-1/2 inches (84.5 x 105.4 cm) Signature and date in Spanish partially legible in shadow area on the ground in lower right quadrant of painting: Cor[...]Sch..tt f. / año de 16[..] PROVENANCE: With art dealer Erasmus, Berlin, together with a "Flight into Egypt" of the same size also signed by Schut, in 1931; Acquired by the grandfather of the current owner during the 1950s from an estate in either Santa Barbara or Santa Monica, California; Thence by descent to the current owner. This painting represents an important rediscovery in the oeuvre of Cornelis Schut III (1629-1685), a Flemish painter of biblical subjects and portraits, and a prolific and accomplished draftsman, who lived and worked for most of his career in Seville, Spain. He was a contemporary of 17th-century Seville's greatest painter, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), whose art had a powerful influence on his painting and was a man whom he doubtless knew personally in that city's small artistic community. Both Schut and Murillo participated in the founding of Seville's Academia de Bellas Artes in 1660, and both served as its president-Murillo together with Franciso de Herrera during its earliest years, and Schut from 1672 to 1674. Schut was employed as a teacher of drawing there, in addition to holding several administrative posts throughout the years. Cornelis Schut III came from a family of artists in Antwerp, the town in which he was born, raised, and almost certainly trained by his uncle, Cornelis Schut I (1597-1655), a talented, prolific painter and printmaker, whose work became, and to some extent still remains, confused with his nephew's. Cornelis III had settled in Seville by May 21, 1650, a fact documented by an inscription he had made on a drawing, in Spanish: "Cornelio Schut f. en Seva a 21 de Mayo de 1650" [see Gertrude Wilmers, Cornelis Schut (1597-1655): A Flemish Painter of the High Baroque, Brepols, 1996, p. 221.] (Without known exception, Cornelis III always signed his work in Spanish.) In 1653 he married a Sevillian woman, Augustina Tello de Meneses, raised a family of at least two daughters, and died there in 1685. What brought Cornelis III to Seville is not known, though the city's great commercial importance at the time attracted a large Flemish population. As a developing artist, Murillo had the opportunity to see a great deal of Flemish painting in private collections in Seville: this exposure resulted in his lifelong attraction to naturalistic detail drawn from firsthand observation as well as realist subjects such as beggars, peasants and other subjects drawn from everyday life. In turn, the "Flemish" qualities in Murillo's work would have been a natural artistic magnet for Cornelis III, when he settled in Spain. Interestingly, the Spanish qualities informing Cornelis III's painting and the Flemish qualities of Murillo's led both artists to find an avid patron in the same collector: Don Nicolas Omazur, a Flemish silk merchant based in Seville. Omazur purchased (and possibly commissioned) 6 important religious scenes by Cornelis Schut III, and was Murillo's greatest private patron (he owned more paintings by Murillo than any other collector of his century-31 in total). The groundbreaking scholarship of Duncan Kinkead on Omazur's collection has resurrected not only the significance of Omazur's role in art patronage in Seville in general, but has also for the first time identified a key private patron of Cornelis Schut III, whose painterly achievement has yet to be the subject of a comprehensive scholarly study (D. Kinkead, "The Picture Collection of Don Nicolas Omazur," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, no. 995 (Feb., 1986), pp. 132-144). To date only a handful of paintings by Cornelis III are known to survive, despite the fact that he is recorded as having produced altarpieces, and that fully-signed easel-sized paintings have appeared occasionally in estate inventories and at auction over the years (see Wilmers, p. 304, n. 10 for a list). The reasons for his obscurity doubtless stem from two key factors: confusion between his and his uncle's work on the basis of name and subject matter, and because expatriate Cornelis III does not fit neatly into either the Flemish or the Spanish tradition. He is, rather, a conflation of both. The present painting's monumental figures in an extensive landscape and loose paint handling are consistent features of Cornelis Schut III's known paintings from the 1660s, the period of his greatest artistic production. These qualities distinguish his efforts from those of Cornelis I, which tend towards harder facture and smaller figures within the overall composition. Prior to Heritage's discovery of the signature on this painting, the work was considered by current art historians to be from the circle of German Baroque painter Michael Willmann, who studied in Holland and absorbed the aesthetics of both Rembrandt and Rubens. To be sure, the golden light describing this composition as well as the Rembrandtesque brushiness and subject matter are qualities Willmann adopted. The compressed facial features of the angel as well as its attenuated proportions indeed looked decidedly German. Interestingly, however, those and other features are also characteristic of the work of the under-studied painter Cornelis III, who forged an individual style based on several filters of influence. Two earlier writers described Cornelis Schut III's mature Sevillian style in enough detail that their words and the qualities of the present painting of circa 1668 make a comfortable match. Writing in 1884, Amador de los Rios characterizes the best of the artist's paintings as gracious and noble, with correct drawing, freedom of execution, and agreeable color, while in others he finds faulty draftsmanship, inattention to anatomical proportions, and a palette tending toward gray or monochrome. A little later, Gestoso y Perez cites strong contrasts of light and shade and exaggerated foreshortening as typical elements of Cornelis III's painting style. Cornelis III's familiarity with Murillo's paintings can be pinpointed through particular motifs in the current work, which have antecedents in specific Murillo paintings the artist would have or certainly could have known. The kneeling shepherd, for example, appears in a pose virtually identical to that of the Prodigal Son in Murillo's Prodigal Son Feeding Swine of 1660 now in the collection of the National Gallery, Ireland [inv no 4544]. A massive, oversized angel in the same pose, but without the arm crossing over the body, appears in Murillo's 1667 Liberation of St. Peter, painted just a year earlier, in 1667 (now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg). Perhaps the best and most obvious source for an oversized, attenuated angel with great outstretched wings and reddish hair, with feet posed identically to those of Cornelis III's angel, was the angel occupying the very center of Murillo's monumental St. Francis in the Kitchen of Two Angels painted circa 1645-46 for the Monastery of St. Francis in Seville. As a newcomer to Seville around that time, Cornelis III would have joined the ranks of others who were bowled over by this and the twelve other massive canvases Murillo produced for the monastery. The series was justly celebrated and gave Murillo a well-deserved boost in reputation which led to major commissions in Madrid as well. Provenance and a possible companion painting Prior to 1931, this painting's history is undocumented. During that year, the painting appeared on the art market in Berlin with dealer Dr. Erasmus, together with another work by Cornelis III of the same size and quality depicting The Flight into Egypt (current whereabouts unknown)-which could have been its pendant. Through photographs preserved on annotated mounts in the photographic archive of the Courtauld Institute of London's Witt Library, we know that both works were signed in full, and that the present work was, at that time, clearly dated 1668, a date whose last two digits have since become obscured. The same archive also preserves a photograph of a painting by Cornelis III entitled David Returning with the Head of Goliath by Cornelis III, signed in full in Spanish and dated 1664, which sold at Christie's, Manson & Woods, London, December 22-23, 1937, lot 72 (present whereabouts unknown). This work possesses a blond landscape extremely similar to that of the present work, and also features a large, brightly illuminated female figure with very similar features and drapery (Scans of the Witt Library photographs are available in our online catalogue.) How this painting came to be in California in the early 1950s, when it was purchased by the current owner's grandfather, a colorful Russian-born immigrant, is unknown. However, the sketchy circumstances surrounding its acquisition are known to the family. The current owner's grandfather came to the United States from the region of Kiev as a young man in the 1910s with dreams of becoming a cowboy. He succeeded in his dream by becoming a cattle broker in the Midwest, even riding a horse from one customer to another, sometimes over long distances. He also eventually owned a large cattle ranch, a lumber business, and at least two general stores in the Midwest. During the 1940s (no later than 1947) he moved to California, where he owned a lumber yard, built some houses, and owned another small cattle ranch, mostly as a hobby after he retired. During the early 1950s, he drove his wife to a medical appointment at a specialty clinic in either Santa Barbara or Santa Monica. His son, who was young at the time and not yet familiar with California geography, couldn't distinguish, as he put it, "between Santa this and Santa that. It all sounded the same to him, and wasn't sure which city the clinic was in." While waiting for his wife to finish her appointment, which took awhile, he wandered around the town to pass the time, and somehow ran across this painting for sale-apparently at an estate sale of some kind. He had not been an art collector up to this point in his life, nor did he continue to be. His family was always mystified by his choice of the large painting with a strong religious narrative, but obviously it spoke to him in some way that he never explained. According to the current owner, "When they returned from the trip, my father recalls that my grandfather was extremely proud of the painting he had brought back with him. He quickly installed it prominently over a dark green sofa in his living room where it hung until his wife's death in 1983. My mother then inherited it and she then hung it in her own living room, where it stayed on the same wall until I inherited it in 2000, but I left it on the same wall. Over the 60 years it has been in our family, it has hung on just two walls." The Iconography The specific subject of this painting has eluded numerous contemporary specialists of 17th-century European painting. The family of the current owner always referred to it as "Tobias and the Angel" despite the fact that it is not a perfect fit. The story of the Annunciation to the Shepherds is not a comfortable fit either, since there is only one shepherd, and the angel seems to be tasking the elderly man with a personal assignment rather than making a general announcement of Christ's birth. The theme of the probable companion painting, The Flight into Egypt, may well provide the clue to this painting's subject. Cornelis Schut III may have depicted here, with liberties, the story of an Angel appearing to Joseph, insisting he flee Bethlehem with his family for Egypt to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. We are grateful to Christine Edmondson, art librarian at the Ingalls Library, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, for her cheerful and generous assistance in locating research materials which were indispensable to the cataloguing of this painting.
A pilgrim wearing the badge of Santiago de Campostella with inscription 'AO AC o' (recto) and 'Originale di Alonso Cno 10/6' on the mount. black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. (166 x 108 mm.)
