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Lot Essay
The present painting is one of two known studio versions after a lost prototype by van Dyck. The other replica is in the Galleria Colonna, Rome (see H. Vey in Van Dyck, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London 2004, p. 404-405, no. III.A12) and has recently been attributed to Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (see A. Heinrich, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Ein Flämischer Nachfolger van Dycks , Turnhout 2003, I, p. 311, no. B1). A brush drawing of the composition by van Dyck (without the horse and the cupid on the right) in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig and an engraving by Coenrad Waumans and Jacobus Coelmans are the only surviving evidence of van Dyck's original.
Chalk marks on the original stretcher of the present painting (since replaced but recorded in photographs) indicate that it was the picture in the 1946 Crawford/Balcarres sale and the subsequent sale at Christie's in 1955. Documents in the inventories of the Crawford and Balcarres family again confirm this provenance and provide evidence of the purchase from Richard Clayton. Only tentative evidence exists of the painting's history prior to the Clayton acquisition in 1815.
Chalk marks on the original stretcher of the present painting (since replaced but recorded in photographs) indicate that it was the picture in the 1946 Crawford/Balcarres sale and the subsequent sale at Christie's in 1955. Documents in the inventories of the Crawford and Balcarres family again confirm this provenance and provide evidence of the purchase from Richard Clayton. Only tentative evidence exists of the painting's history prior to the Clayton acquisition in 1815.