Lot 131: JÜRGEN OVENS TÖNNING, SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN 1623 - 1678 FRIEDRICHSTADT

THE PROPERTY OF A NOBLEMAN

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINT ANNE AND THE INFANT SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

measurements note
170 by 118 cm.; 67 by 46 1/2 in.

oil on canvas, unlined, in a neoclassical frame

PROVENANCE

In the possession of the present owner's family by 1785/6, when listed in their inventory as no. 71, without attribution;
In their 1899 inventory as no. 155, without attribution.

NOTE

Ovens was a pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, according to Houbraken. From 1651 until 1678 he worked in Schleswig-Hollstein, where he was Court Painter to the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorf, but for several years between 1657 and 1663 he was back in Amsterdam. This picture is close in style to several of his paintings dating from the late 1650s such as three depicting Caritas: one dated 1657 in Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Muzeum; and two undated pictures from the late 1650s: in Schloß Dyck, collection of Cecilie Fürstin zu Salm-Reifferscheidt; and in Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum (see W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau/Pfalz 1983 and later, vol. III, pp. 2226-7, nos. 1490, 1493 and 1498, reproduced in colour pp. 2245 and 2248, and in black and white p. 2253). After his final return to Schleswig-Hollstein, Ovens' style becomes much stiffer and less Van Dyckian.