LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

23.43 in. (59.50 cm.) (height) by 17.91 in. (45.50 cm.) (width)

Condition:

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Jusepe Ribera Young girl with tambourine Oil on canvas, in a period gilt and painted frame with some loss. The original canvas is lined; the lining is approximately 70-80 years old and provides sufficient tension across the picture plane. The paint layer is generally well preserved; there is a significant repaired damage and consequential paint loss in the top left corner, confined to the background in this area but affecting a small area of the hair of the girl. Previous minor repaired paint loss along old stretcher marks can be detected. Under raking light the paint layer appears slightly raised in a typically gridded appearance but is stable and secure; there is very minor abrasion of some of the 'peaks' of these raised areas. The textured paint to the flesh tones, in particular is well preserved and in a good original state; some of the background paint is thinly applied and the pale ground colour is apparent through it. Generally, the restoration is not well colour matched and is excessive to the damage it covers. A slight fading to the dark red glaze of the girl's tongue gives her an ambiguous expression. The textured highlights are well preserved, particularly to those areas of the facial features and hands, the white shirt, tambourine and dress. Overall, in a good original state. "This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Exhibited:

London, Spanish Art Gallery (Tomas Harris Ltd.), ; From Greco to Goya, 1938, no. 9, reproduced; ; The Arts Council of Great Britain, Exhibition of Spanish Paintings, Southampton, Derby, Leicester, Cardiff, Aberdeen, 1945–46, no. 16, reproduced; ; London, National Gallery, Spanish Paintings, 11 February – 23 March 1947, no. 24, reproduced, pl. XXI; ; Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Spanish Paintings: From El Greco to Goya, 19 August – 8 September 1951, no. 33; ; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Stora spanska mästare, 12 December 1959 – 13 March 1960, no. 82; ; Barnard Castle, Bowes Museum, Neapolitan, Baroque and Rococo Painting, l June – 12 August 1962, no. 7, reproduced; ; Barnard Castle, Bowes Museum, Four Centuries of Spanish Painting, 17 June – 17 September 1967, no. 35; ; London, Hayward Gallery, Salvator Rosa, 17 October – 23 December 1973, no. 113; ; London, National Gallery, El Greco to Goya: The Taste for Spanish Paintings in Britain and Ireland, 16 September – 29 November 1981, no. 19, reproduced; ; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Jusepe de Ribera, lo Spagnoletto, 1591–1652, 4 December 1982 – 6 February 1983, no. 20, reproduced in colour; ; London, National Gallery, on loan 1991–1997 (L.583); ; Naples, Castel Sant’Elmo, Jusepe de Ribera 1591–1652, 27 February – 17 May 1992, no. 1.67, reproduced in colour; ; Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Ribera 1591–1652, 2 June – 16 August 1992, no. 82, reproduced in colour;     ; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jusepe de Ribera: 1591–1652, 18 September – 29 November 1992, no. 46, reproduced in colour; ; Cremona, Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, I cinque sensi nell'arte. lmmagini del sentire, 21 September 1996 – 12 January 1997, no. VI.4, reproduced in colour; ; Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Los Cinco sentidos y el arte, 27 February – 4 May 1997, no. VI.4, reproduced in colour; ; Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery, on loan 27 July 1998 – 27 July 1999 (No. 1998.666); ; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Murillo: Scenes of Childhood, 14 February – 13 May 2001, no. 3, reproduced in colour.

Literature:

Advertisement in ; The Illustrated London News, 3 December 1938, p. 1035, reproduced; ; Exhibition of Spanish Paintings, N. MacLaren (ed.), exh. cat., National Gallery, London 1947, no. 24, reproduced plate XXI; ; Spanish Paintings: From El Greco to Goya, E.K. Waterhouse (ed.), exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1951, no. 33; ; E. Harris, ‘Spanish Painting from Morales to Goya in the National Gallery of Scotland’, The Burlington Magazine, October 1951, vol. 93, p. 314 (as ‘an unusually pleasant subject for this artist’); ; J.A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Madrid 1958, p. 279, no. 2318; ; G. Kubler and M. Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American dominions, 1500–1800, Pelican History of Art, 1959, p. 241, reproduced plate 123 (detail); ; Stora spanska mästare, C. Nordenfalk (ed.), exh. cat., Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1959, no. 82; ; J.A. Gaya Nuño, ‘Peinture picaresque’, L'Œil, no. 84, December 1961, p. 54; ; Neapolitan, Baroque and Rococo Painting, T. Ellis (ed.), exh. cat., Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, 1962, no. 7, reproduced; ; T. Crombie, ‘Naples in the North’, Apollo, July 1962, LXXVI, p. 396, reproduced fig. 2; ; E. Harris, ‘Exposición de pinturas y dibujos napolitanos en el Museo Bowes de Barnard Castle’, in Archivio español de arte, vol. 36, 1963, pp. 131–33, reproduced; ; E. Young in Four Centuries of Spanish Painting, exh. cat., Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, 1967, no. 35; ; C. Felton, Jusepe de Ribera: A Catalogue Raisonné, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1971, vol. I, pp. 243–44, cat. no. A-54; ; R. Causa, ‘La pittura del Seicento a Napoli dal naturalismo al barocco’, in Storia di Napoli, vol. V, part 2, 1972, reproduced fig. 279; ; M. Kitson in Salvator Rosa, exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London, 1973, pp. 68–69, no. 113; ; T. Mullaly, ‘Painting in Focus’, in The Daily Telegraph, 6 March 1976, p. 11; ; N. Spinosa in L’opera completa del Ribera, A.E. Pérez Sánchez and N. Spinosa (eds), Milan 1978, p. 111, no. 114, reproduced in colour, plate XXXIII; ; F. Bologna, Gaspare Traversi, nell’illuminismo europeo, Naples 1980, pp. 52–53, reproduced fig. 32; ; A. Braham in El Greco to Goya. The Taste for Spanish Paintings in Britain and Ireland, exh. cat., National Gallery, London 1981, p. 63, no. 19, reproduced fig. 71; ; C. Felton in Jusepe de Ribera, lo Spagnoletto (1591–1652), C. Felton and W.B. Jordan (eds), exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1982, pp. 160–61, no. 20, reproduced in black and white and in colour on p. 17; ; M. Haraszti-Takács, Spanish genre painting in the seventeenth century, Budapest 1983, pp. 27, 209, no. 171, reproduced plate 69; ; F. Benito Doménech, Ribera 1591–1652, Madrid 1991, p. 120, reproduced in colour on p. 122; ; N. Spinosa in Jusepe de Ribera 1591–1652, A.E. Pérez Sánchez and N. Spinosa (eds), exh. cat., Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples 1992, p. 223, no. 1.67, reproduced in colour on p. 225; ; N. Spinosa in Ribera 1591–1652, A.E. Pérez Sánchez and N. Spinosa (eds), exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 1992, p. 49, p. 314, no. 82, reproduced in colour on p. 316; ; N. Spinosa in Jusepe de Ribera 1591–1652, A.E. Pérez Sánchez and N. Spinosa (eds), exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992, p. 127, no. 46, reproduced in colour; and pp. 126–28 under nos 45 and 47; ; C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 1995, p. 578, no. L.583, reproduced in colour; ; I cinque sensi nell'arte. lmmagini del sentire, S. Ferino-Pagden (ed.), exh. cat., Centro culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, Cremona, 1996, p. 150, no. VI.4, reproduced in colour on p. 151; ; Los Cinco Sentidos y el Arte, S. Ferino-Pagden (ed.), exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 1997, p. 178, no. VI.4, reproduced in colour on p. 179; ; M. de Cervantes, Exemplary Stories, transl. L. Lipson, Oxford 1998, reproduced in colour on the cover; ; M. Scholz-Hänsel, Jusepe de Ribera 1591–1652, Cologne 2000, p. 122, reproduced in colour fig. 108; ; N. Spinosa, Ribera, L'opera completa, Naples 2003, pp. 174, 243 n. 129 and 305, no. A182, reproduced in black and white and in colour as a detail on p. 131 and on the cover; ; N. Spinosa, 'La pittura napoletana con scene di genere', in Gaspare Traversi, napoletani del ’700 tra miseria e nobiltà, N. Spinosa (ed.), exh. cat., Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples 2003, p. 14, reproduced on p. 15;  ; Murillo: Scenes of Childhood, X. Brooke and P. Cherry (eds), exh. cat., Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 2001, p. 27 and p. 84, no. 3, reproduced in colour p. 85;   ; Murillo, Kinderleben in Sevilla, X. Brooke and P. Cherry (eds), exh. cat., German ed., Alte Pinakothek, Munich 2001, p. 45; ; N. Spinosa. Ribera. L'opera completa, Naples 2006, 2nd ed., pp. 174, 243 n. 129 and 334, no. A 204, reproduced in black and white and in colour as a detail on p. 131; ; N. Spinosa, Ribera. La obra completa, Madrid 2008, pp. 207, 295, n. 125 and 420, no. A 225, reproduced in black and white and in colour as a detail on p. 152; ; J. Milicua, 'Los Cinco sentidos', in El joven Ribera, exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2011, p. 146, reproduced in colour p. 147, fig. 64; ; J. Portús, Ribera, Barcelona 2011, p. 95, reproduced in colour fig. 71. ;   ;  

Provenance:

Private collection, Paris, until 1930; ; With Spanish Art Gallery, London (Tomas Harris Ltd.); ; Where acquired by Mr and Mrs F.A. Drey, London, on 23 March 1937; ; Thence by descent to their granddaughter; ; By whom sold (‘The Property of a Lady’), London, Sotheby’s, 3 December 1997, lot 54; ; Acquired in 1998 for the present collection.