Lot 238: Christopher Paudiss (Lower Saxony c. 1630-1666 Freising)

A Rabbinical scholar
oil on canvas
25 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (64.8 x 54 cm.)

J. Ferry, Esq. (according to a label on the reverse)

Christopher Paudiss studied in Hamburg before moving to Amsterdam in the late 1640s, where he entered Rembrandt's studio. In the late 1650s, the artist left Amsterdam and secured patronage from the princely German courts, including that of Dresden where he worked circa 1659-60, and where most of his finest works can be found. The present painting probably dates to the early 1660s as it bears similarities in subject and composition to The Jewish Scholar, now lost, (see W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau, 1983, IV, p. 2336, no. 1563).