Lot 12: Marten van Valckenborch I (Leuven 1534-1612 Frankfurt am Main)

An allegory of Spring signed 'MARTEN VAN VALCKENBORCH. FT' (lower centre) oil on panel 203/8 x 283/4 in. (51.7 x 73 cm.) PROVENANCE Mrs. Morden Rigg, High House, Kendal; Christie's, London, 13 November 1936, lot 63, a set of four (œ262 to del Blanco). with Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, in 1936 and again in 1945. H.B.N. Ledeboer, Enschede (according to a label on the reverse). A.H. van Heek, Enschede, and by descent to the present owner LITERATURE A. Laes, 'Marten van Valckenborch', Annuaire des Mus‚es Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, I, 1938, p. 128. H.G. Franz, 'Beitr„ge zur niederl„ndischen Landschaftsmalerei de des 16. Jahrhunderts', Kunsthistorisches Jahrbuch Graz, XV/XVI, 1979/80, p. 171, fig. 18. A. Wied, Lucas und Marten van Valckenborch. Das Gesamtwerk mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren, 1990, pp. 13, 240-1 and 263, no. 31, illustrated. EXHIBITION Enschede, Twents Museum, October 1929, no. 30. Almelo, Kunstkring De Waag, Oude Kunst uit Twents Particulier Bezit, 31 October-30 November 1953, no. 53, fig. 9. Dordrechts, Dordrechts Museum, Boom, Bloem en Plant, 1955, no. 148. Laren, Singer Museum, Modernen van toen, 1570-1630, 15 June-1 September 1963, no. 154. NOTES When the present panel last appeared in these Rooms in 1936, it did so in the company of three other pictures comprising a series of the Four Seasons. The set was subsequently dispersed by Pieter de Boer who sold the Winter panel to a collector in Stockholm (Wied, op. cit., no. 34; present whereabouts unknown), and the Summer and Autumn to A.H. van Heek in Enschede, ( ibid., nos. 32 and 33). These three panels are all dated 1600, placing the series towards the end of the artist's career, when he and his brother, Lukas, were running a flourishing workshop in Frankfurt. As is appropriate to the season, the present picture has strong amorous connotations. The elegantly dressed men in the foreground are overcome by wine, music and feminine beauty and their courtship is no doubt referred to by the cultivated palace garden or 'Garden of Love' alongside.