Lot 129: Christian van Couwenbergh , Delft 1604-1667 Cologne Nymph and satyr oil on panel

signed lower left in monogram CB.F. oil on panel

measurements note 89 by 71 cm.; 35 by 28 in.

L.J. Slatkes, Dirck van Baburen: A Dutch Painter in Utrecht and Rome, Utrecht 1965, pp. 167, 195, cat. no. E47, 48 (as 'Van Couwenbergh');
W.C. Maier-Preusker, "Christian van Couwenbergh (1604-1667) Oeuvre und Wandlungen, Eines Holländischen Caravaggisten," Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, vol. LII, Cologne 1991, p. 215, cat. no. A33, reproduced p. 168, fig. 6.

Anonymous sale, Berlin, Galerie Fritz Gerstel, 21 January 1908, lot 156;
Anonymous sale, Munich, Helbing, 2 March 1909, lot 6;
A. Souheur, Aachen;
By whom sold, Cologne, Lempertz, 7 April 1921, lot 145 (as by 'Dirck van Baburen');
With Galerie Bruno Scardeoni, Mendrisio, 1984;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 July 1999, lot 549, there purchased for £25,300 ($39,680);
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), New York, Sotheby's, 27 January 2006, lot 288B, where acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM THE LONDON RESIDENCE OF LUIGI KOELLIKER
Maier-Preusker (see Literature) dates this picture circa 1626-1628, and suggests that the true subject may be an allegory of Taste which belonged alongside compositions which evoke the other four senses. The series may have included the Sense of Touch currently preserved in a Bavarian private collection, and the Sense of Hearing, which was formerly in the Schubart collection, Mönchengladbach (op. cit., p. 215, cat. nos. A34 and A 35, reproduced p. 168, figs. 5 and 8).