Pauwels Coecke van Aelst

(Antwerp 1530 –1568/69)
The Virgin and Child,
oil on panel, shaped top, 110 x 70.5 cm, framed
Provenance:
with Galerie Brunner, Paris (according to wax seal on the reverse);
art market, Germany (as Follower of Jan Gossaert);
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Till Holger Borchert for confirming the attribution after examination in the original.

The present painting shows great similarities to a group of works representing the Virgin and Child made after an assumedly lost prototype by Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (circa 1478 – circa 1536). This artist from the Low Countries was amongst the first Northern artists to travel to Italy and introduced Italian Renaissance painting to the North. It was Max Jakob Friedländer (1867–1958) who discovered a great number of copies made after this assumed original by Gossaert (M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden 1972, vol. VIII, p. 35, 95, no. 38, plate 36). Two of these works bear similarity to the present painting. One is signed and dated and depicts the Virgin and Child against a darker and less defined background with a flowering lily in a vase at the Virgin’s right and cherries beside the Child’s feet (see sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, London, 1 November 2005, lot 29, as Studio of Jan Gossaert). The second work lacks attributes, as in the present painting, but features a mountainous landscape in the left background. Conserved in the Palace Museum in Wilanów (inv. no. Wil. 1008, as attributed to Jan Gossaert), this work seems more comparable to the present panel due to similarities in the colours of the garments worn by the Virgin.

Little is known about Pauwels Coecke van Aelst, the illegitimate son of Pieter Coecke van Aelst I. Trained by both his father and half-brother Pieter Coecke van Aelst II, the artist never became a free master in his birthplace, Antwerp. He married Maaike Roebroecx, and they resided in two rooms on Korte Gasthuisstraat. The painting studio was located in the attic where six easels were listed on the estate inventory, made up after the artist’s death. This might indicate that Pauwels employed several assistants, which seems unusual considering he was not registered with the Guild. According to Karel van Mander (1548–1606), the artist copied the works of Jan Gossaert, as evidenced by the present work and painted small flower still lifes with great attention to detail.