Monday 11 February 2019

Researching some provenance for another Cambrai Madonna

Debacker & Richmond, from France (despite the Flemish and English name), sells on 2 March 2019 a"Flemish School, in the Italo-Byzantine Style of the 14th century" Virgin and Child, estimated at 500 to 700 Euro.

It is another version of the "Cambrai Madonna", an important painting I already discussed a few months ago.

This is a devotional image, hung in a Church with the names of the benefactors at the bottom. In this case, "Alber Patin Barbe de Baral". And this made it possible to find some provenance and thus history for this painting.

Amazingly enough, it is not Flemish but comes from Cambrai, the city that also houses the original Cambrai Madonna. The work for sale was owned at one time by Immanuel Oscar Menahem Deutsch (1829-1873), a German Jew who worked in the British Museum for much of his career. In his "Literary Remains", published in 1874, we find a reference to a work dedicated by Albert Patin and Barbe de Baralle, which he dates to the early 17th century. According to Deutsch, the Patin family was an important family in Cambrai, often in judiciary functions.

Genealogy sites (which should often be taken with a grain of salt) indicate that Albert Patin, married to Barbe Baralle and father of Chrestienne Patin, died before 1620: which would mean that this painting as well dates at the latest to 1620, making it quite interesting. 

It probably isn't worth much more than the estimate, but it is good to have a clear origin in space and time.

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