Young Man Holding a Book | Master of the View of Sainte Gudule | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelThe sitters for this panel and a very similar one in the National Gallery, London, wear distinctive, nearly identical costumes, and we can therefore assume that they were members of the same organization—perhaps a guild or confraternity. The Brussels church of Sainte Gudule is featured in the background, exemplifying the local pride characteristic of artists and patrons at the time.

NotesA very similar portrait is in the National Gallery, London, but the exact relationship of the two works is ambiguous. The costumes of the young men are so similar that they appear to be in uniform, both hold heart-shaped books and face towards the left, but the backgrounds of the pictures are different. Most likely these panels were produced by different hands in what appears to have been a large workshop. As Campbell has observed [see Ref. 1980] the London portrait is closer to the name work of the artist, the "Pastoral Sermon" (Louvre, Paris), although the New York artist is "certainly more skillful."

The priest, attendant and choir interior represented in the background of our panel are based on these elements in Rogier van der Weyden's "Triptych of the Seven Sacraments" (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp). Although the nave in Rogier's triptych appears to be based on that of the church of Sainte Gudule in Brussels [ill. in R. Maere, L'Église S. Gudule à Bruxelles, La Revue d'Art, vol. 25, 1925, pp. 190, 199], that of the church in our portrait bears only a generic rather than literal resemblence to it.

ProvenanceLeopold Friedrich Franz, Herzog von Anhalt, gothisches Haus, Wörlitz (d. 1817; acquired from "an aged painter at Lille"); Herzogen von Anhalt, gothisches Haus, Wörlitz, and Schloß, Dessau (until at least 1926); [Knoedler, New York, by 1928; sold to Harkness]; Edward S. Harkness, New York (1928–d. 1940); Mrs. Edward S. (Mary Stillman) Harkness, New York (1940–d. 1950)

Exhibition History

Bruges. Palais du Gouvernement. "Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien," June 15–September 15, 1902, no. 143.

Exposition universelle et internationale de Bruxelles. "Cinq siècles d'art," May 24–October 13, 1935, no. 59.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 34.

References

G. Parthey. "A–K." Deutscher Bildersaal. 1, Berlin, 1863, p. 416.

Georges H. de Loo Palais du Gouvernement, Bruges. Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles: catalogue critique précédé d'une introduction sur l'identité de certains maîtres anonymes. Ghent, 1902, pp. 36–37.

W. H. James Weale. "The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the Bruges Exhibition of 1902, Article III." Burlington Magazine 1 (April 1903), p. 217, ill.

Max J. Friedländer. "Die Brüsseler Tafelmalerei gegen den Ausgang des 15. Jahrhunderts." Belgische Kunstdenkmäler. Munich, 1923, vol. 1, pp. 318–20, ill.

"Dans une 'note sur quelques peintures du maître inconnu dit de Sainte Gudule' . . ." Académie Royale d'Archéologie de Belgique Bulletin 1 (1924), pp. 93–94.

René van Bastelaer. "Note sur quelques peintures du maître anonyme dit 'de Sainte-Gudule'." Bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts 6 (1924), pp. 16–18, 22–25.

Friedrich Winkler. Die altniederländische Malerei: Die Malerei in Belgien und Holland von 1400–1600. Berlin, 1924, p. 371.

Max J. Friedländer. "Hugo van der Goes." Die altniederländische Malerei. 4, Berlin, 1926, p. 142, no. 77.

Charles R. Beard. "A Problem Solved: A Portrait of Louis XI." Connoisseur 87 (May 1931), p. 276.

"'Marriage of the Virgin' Painted by the Master of St. Gudule." Connoisseur 92 (July–December 1933), p. 40.

J. Porcher and E. Droz. Le chansonnier de Jean de Montchenu. Paris, 1933, p. 109.

Oda Van de Castyne. "Autour de 'L'instruction pastorale' du Louvre (A propos de l'exposition d'art ancien à Bruxelles)." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 5 (October–December 1935), pp. 326–27, ill.

Pl. Lefèvre. "Mélanges: À propos de 'L'instruction pastorale' du Louvre." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art. 6, October–December 1936, p. 359.

Charles Sterling. La peinture française: Les peintres du moyen age. Paris, 1942, p. 63.

Martin Davies. National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School. London, 1945, pp. 75–76.

Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 37, Leipzig, 1950, p. 130.

Martin Davies. The National Gallery, London [Les primitifs flamands. 1. Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle, 3]. 2, Antwerp, 1954, pp. 206–6.

Colin Eisler. "Erik Larsen, Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York, 1960." Art Bulletin 46 (March 1964), p. 103.

Lorne Campbell. Unpublished notes. 1981.

Guy Bauman. "Early Flemish Portraits, 1425–1525." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 43 (Spring 1986), pp. 40–41, ill. (color).

Craig Harbison. Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism. London, 1991, pp. 146–47, 210 n.15, ill.

Introduction by Walter A. Liedtke in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, p. 352, no. 343, ill.

Nicole Veronée-Verhaegen. Les primitifs flamands et leur temps. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994, p. 229.

Eric Jager. "The Book of the Heart: Reading and Writing the Medieval Subject." Speculum 71 (January 1996), pp. 18–22, ill.

Lorne Campbell. Letter to Mary Sprinson de Jesús. August 28, 1997.

Lorne Campbell. National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools. London, 1998, pp. 346, 349–52, ill.

Mary Sprinson de Jesús in From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 71, 178–81, no. 34, ill. (color).

Eric Jager. The Book of the Heart. Chicago, 2000, pp. 121–36, 196 n. 1, p. 197, fig. 9.

Philippe Lorentz and Micheline Comblen-Sonkes. Musée du Louvre, Paris. III [Les primitifs flamandes, I: Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège au quinzième siècle, vol. 19]. Brussels, 2001, text vol., pp. 243, 246, 249.

Anne Hagopian van Buren. "Eric Jager, 'The Book of the Heart.' . . . 2000." Studies in Iconography 23 (2002), pp. 218–21, 224 n. 7.

Lorne Campbell in Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 2002, p. 106, fig. 185.

Bodo Brinkmann. "'Quelque chose d'un peu sauvage': Ein ungewöhnliches Interieur für den Bruder eines Holbein-Kunden." Hans Holbein und der Wandel in der Kunst des frühen 16. Jahrhunderts. Turnhout, Belgium, 2005, pp. 264–65 n. 21.

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