Lot 51: Karel van Mander III (Delft 1610-1670 Copenhagen)

An Allegory of taste: a young man drinking from a silver tankard
oil on panel
22 3/8 x 18 1/4 in. (56.8 x 46.3 cm.)

Copenhagen, Radhusudstillingen, 1901, no. 1213.
Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen, Den Barnekowske Samling, 1921, no. 5.

F.R. Friis, Bidrag til Dansk Kunsthistorie, Copenhagen, 1890-1901, p. 78.
H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Harlem, 1942, p. 464.
V. Winkel & Magnussen, ed., Kunst i Privat Eje, III, Copenhagen, 1945, pp. 168-69, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Christian IV and Europe - The 19th Art Exhibition of the Council of Europe, Denmark, 1988, p. 100, under no. 309.

Poul Lovenorns collection, from whom purchased in 1740 by J.S. Wahl;
his sale, March 1766, no 16, 'The Five Senses in Original Works'.
Bodendicks collection, Copenhagen, where documented in an inventory of 1825.
Barnekowske collection, Copenhagen, by 1921.
Sadolin collection, Denmark; Arne Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, November 1977, lot 371, where purchased by the present owner.

The present picture originally formed part of a set of the Five Senses of which Sight and Hearing, are in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (nos. 799 and 800) and the other two, Touch and Smell, are missing. The set were presumably dispersed at some point after 1825 when they were documented together in the Bodendick collection.

The artist was the grandson of Karel van Mander I, after whose death in 1623, he left Delft, aged thirteen, and moved to Denmark with his mother Corelia Rooswijck. He trained in the studio of Pieter Isaacsz. until 1629 and then worked as a portrait painter to the Royal Family from 1631. His career and his artistic output was transformed when in 1635 he received financial support from Christian IV to travel to the Netherlands and Flanders. He returned to Denmark in 1638 when he was appointed court painter. The Five Senses were painted the following year (Sight is dated 1639), revealing a freedom of handling and vivacity that marked a radical departure from the rigid tradition of Danish portraiture. Van Mander is known to have spent time in the studios of both Rembrandt and Rubens and the pervading influence of both is readily apparent in the present picture.

Works by the artist are rare, the great majority of extant works belonging to Danish public and Royal collections. Only one picture by the artist appears to have come on to the market in recent years, a Black Woman in oriental dress, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 227.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis