Hugo van der Goes Making a Portrait of Mary of Burgundy

Inscription: Signed (lower right): G.Koller.

Stephen Whitney Phoenix, New York (until d. 1881)

Brussels. location unknown. "Exposition générale des beaux-arts," August 15–October 15, 1872, no. 424 (as “Hugues van der Goes, reçu par la duchesse Marguerite d’York, seconde femme de Charles le Téméraire, fait le portrait de Marie de Bourgogne”), possibly this work.

H. D. B. "Salon de Bruxelles, IV." Journal de Bruxelles 52 (August 27, 1872), unpaginated [p. 1], notes that it and the other painting exhibited by the artist, "Anton Fugger and Charles V” (private collection), are charming, but critiques the “ennuyeuse banalité” (boring banality) of the heads and hands, as well as the disharmonious yet striking color, possibly this work.

X. X. "Exposition des beaux-arts (troisième article)." L'indépendance belge 42 (September 2, 1872), unpaginated [p. 1], notes the artist continues to imitate Jan August Hendrik Leys in his sixteenth-century subject matter but has adopted an unpicturesque manner of execution; praises his draftsmanship and composition but critiques the figures, specifically their lack of expression and perfectly tailored clothing, possibly this work.

"Kunst en Letternieuws." Het Handelsblad van Antwerpen 28 (September 5, 1872), unpaginated [p. 2], possibly this work.

Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. Ed. John Denison Champlin Jr. New York, 1927, vol. 2, p. 403, as "Hugo van der Goes painting Portrait of the Infanta Marie de Bourgogne, New York Museum".

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 347, ill.

Alison Hokanson and Edward H. Wouk. "The Past is Always Present: The Image of Early Netherlandish Art in the Long Nineteenth Nentury." Oud Holland 133 (2020), pp. 146–48, 152 nn. 1–2, fig. 1 (color), describe the subject as a fictional encounter since no records exist of Van der Goes painting a portrait of Mary of Burgundy (1457–82); identify the seated woman as Margaret of York (1446–1503), Mary’s stepmother, and the standing man as Charles the Bold (1433–77), her father; state that the armorials in the background are approximations of the coats of arms of England and Burgundy in the period but that the paintings have not been identified and may be Koller’s inventions; assert that it evokes “early Netherlandish artistic genius and its alignment with political and economic power—a vision that dovetailed with the aspirations of the nineteenth-century Belgian state”.