Lot 15: * ARTUS WOLFFORT ANTWERP 1581 - 1641

inscribed at lower edge in a trompe l'oeil stone cartouche S. A[N]DREAS / ET IN IESVM CHRISTV[M] FILIV[M] EIVS VNICV[M], DOMINVM NOSTRV / II.

oil on canvas

45 3/4 by 36in.; 116.2 by 91.4cm

Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, on extended loan from the Kimbell Art Foundation, Spring 1958 - October 1968.

J. S. Thatcher, "The Paintings of Francisco de Herrera, the Elder," Art Bulletin, 1937, vol. XIX, p. 328 (as by Francesca de Herrera);
J. S. Thatcher, Kimbell Art Museum: Catalogue of the Collection, 1972, pp. 48-49, reproduced (as by Herrera);
J. S. Thatcher, Kimbell Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection, 1982, pp. 75, reproduced (as Flemish School, 17th century);
H. Vlieghe, "Zwischen van Veen und Rubens: Artus Wolffort (1581 - 1641) ein vergessener Antwerpener Maler," Walraff-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 1977, vol. XXXIX, p. 101, reproduced fig. 11;
J. S. Held, "Noch Einmal Artus Wolffort," Walraff-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 1981, Vol. XLII, pp. 143-146, reproduced.

PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION

Private Collection, Paris, acquired in Spain, 1850;
With Newhouse Galleries, Inc., New York;
Where acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Kay Kimbell;
Acquired by the Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas, 1958;
Their sale, New York, Sotheby's, June 4, 1987, lot 41:
There purchased by the present collector.

When acquired by the Kimbell Foundation (see Provenance below), the present painting was believed to be by the Seville painter Francisco de Herrera. It was correctly identified as the Antwerp painter Artus Wolffort only in 1977, in an extensive article by Hans Vlieghe (see Literature below, pp. 93-196), and in 1981, in a large article by Julius S. Held (see Literature below, pp. 143-156). Both Vlieghe and Held recognised that it belongs to a series of the Apostle paintings which includes a St. Matthew (private collection, Brussels, reproduced fig. 12 in Vlieghe's article) and also a St. Bartholomew (private collection, England), the latter published for the first time in Held's article, reproduced fig. 1.

At the lower edge of each painting appears a trompe l'oeil cartouche inscribed with the article of the Creed usually associated with that Apostle, as well as a Roman numeral indicating the Apostle's usual place in the sequence. One may compare these paintings, for instance, with Hendrick Goltzius' series of prints of circa 1589 where the sequence and articles are identical.

Wolffort's Antwerp activity begins circa 1616, and Vlieghe dates the series to this time. Held, on the other hand, suggests circa 1620-25, based largely on the dating of an unfinished male portrait lying under the St. Andrew which is visible only in an X-ray (see Held Literature below, reproduced fig. 3). Held compares the style of his attire with a Flemish portrait of a man dated 1617, and assuming a time period of 1617-1620 for the Kimbell underlying portrait, notes that the St. Andrew would have been painted over it within a very short number of years. Held further suggests that the underlying image may be Wolffort's own self portrait, comparing it to Cornelis Galle's engraving of Wolffort after van Dyck for his Iconographie. Interesting to also note in the X-ray is a change in position of St. Andrew's head (see Held, reproduced fig. 4). Originally painted so that he looked out of the picture towards the left, Wolffort changed the position so that he looked downward at his book, a pose as Vlieghe observed which is identical to a St. Matthew painting which is attributed to Wolffort, but which had been ascribed to Jacob Jordaens by Leo van Puyvelde.

Wolffort evidently executed several other series, not only of the Apostles, but of other subjects such as the Fathers of the Church as well. For a full discussion, see Vlieghe and Held Literature below.