Lot 34: The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple with Saints Anne and Joachim

Peter de Kempeneer (Brussels c.1503-c.1580)
The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple with Saints Anne and Joachim
oil on canvas transferred from panel
51 x 44 1/8 in. (129.5 x 112.1 cm.)

Rotterdam, Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, Catalogue de la Collection Goudstikker d'Amsterdam, 22 December 1928-6 January 1929, no. 55, illustrated.
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Catalogue de la Collection Goudstikker, 12 January-28 February 1929.
Maastricht, Bonnenfantenmuseum, on loan.

M.J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, Leiden, 1924-37, VIII, no. 101, pl. 100, as Bernard van Orley.
L. Baldass, 'Die Entwicklung des Bernart van Orley', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 13, 1944, pp. 141-91, illustrated, as Bernard van Orley.
C. Wright, Paintings in Dutch Museums. An Index of Oil Paintings in Public Collections in The Netherlands by Artists born before 1870, London, 1980, p. 352, as Barend van Orley.
J.D. Farmer, Bernard van Orley of Brussels, Princeton, 1981, pp. 258-60, fig. 212, as circle of Bernard van Orley.
N. Dacos Crifò, 'Autour de Bernard van Orley. Peeter de Kempeneer et son compagnon', Revue de l'Art, 75, 1987, pp. 17-28, fig. 2, as Pieter de Kempener.
Old Master Paintings: An illustrated summary catalogue, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst (The Netherlandish Office for the Fine Arts), The Hague, 1992, p. 230, no. 1982, illustrated, as Bernard van Orley.

A.L. Kieholsen(?), London.
with St. Lucas, Vienna.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1928.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

We are grateful to Dr. Nicole Dacos Crifò for reconfirming the attribution to Peter de Kempeneer, that she herself first proposed in 1987 (op. cit.). De Kempeneer was born in Brussels, but travelled widely, working in both Italy and Spain. Indeed most of what is known about him comes from Spanish sources. He came from a family of painters and tapestry designers, and his early training encompassed both art forms. He also spent a number of years in the early 1520s in the workshop of Bernard van Orley, and it is to this period that Dr. Dacos Crifò dates the present work. Clearly indebted to the work of van Orley (to whom it has also been attributed, see literature above), chronologically it comes after de Kempeneer's Job altarpiece of 1521 (Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts) and before the grisaille panels that he executed for the retable of the Last Judgement of 1525 (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten).