Lot 41: STUDIO OF DIRCK VAN BABUREN

STUDIO OF DIRCK VAN BABUREN WIJK BIJ DUURSTEDE, NEAR UTRECHT CIRCA 1594/5 - 1624 UTRECHT A DUET oil on canvas 38 1/2 by 33 in.; 98 by 84 cm.

Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Pintura neerlandesa en Mexico siglos XV, XVI y XVII, April-May 1964, p.11, no. 10, reproduced in the catalouge (as Dirck van Baburen).

"Un Olandese figlio spirtuale d'Italia Van Baburen", in Arte Figurativa Antica e Moderna, 3, 1955, p. 29;
J.R. Judson, Gerrit van Honthorst; a discussion of his position in Dutch art, The Hague 1956, p. 67, note 3;
B. Nicolson, Hendrick Terbrugghen, London 1958, p. 119;
J.R. Judson, Gerrit van Honthorst : a discussion of his position in Dutch art, The Hague 1959, p. 68, note 3;
L. J. Slatkes, Dirck van Baburen (c. 1595-1624), a Dutch painter in Utrecht and Rome, Utrecht 1965, p. 138;
B. Nicolson, The international Caravaggesque movement: lists of pictures by Caravaggio and his followers throughout Europe from 1590 to 1650, Oxford 1979, p. 18, (as a copy of a lost painting by Dirck van Baburen);
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, vol. 1, Torino 1989, p. 55, (as a copy of a lost painting by Dirck van Baburen).

F. Pospisil collection, Venice circa 1943;
Frezzati collection, Venice;
Purchased by the father of the present owners in the 1950's;
Thence by descent.

The present painting is the best workshop repetition of a now lost autograph composition by Baburen. Another version, much inferior in quality, was formally in the Schloss Wiesentheid in Pommersfelden and cannot be considered to be the production of Baburen's studio. A third version, also not considered to be autograph, was recorded in the N. Kohlhepp collection in Louisville, Kentucky.

Baburen died at a young age after having travelled to Rome. While there, he fell under the influence of the caravaggisti, and upon his return to Utrecht he became, along with Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Bruggen, one of the proponents of Caravaggio's style in the North. Honthorst's influence is evident in Baburen's later works and it is most likely that our picture also dates from this period in his career.

We are grateful to Wayne E. Franits for inspecting this picture in the original and for his help in cataloguing this work.