Portrait of a Cologne Patrician & his Wife, possibly of the Pilgrum Family

Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Younger
Cologne, ca. 1530 – Cologne, ca. 1610

Portrait of a Cologne Patrician and his Wife, possibly members of the Pilgrum Family

Oil on panel
Respectively annotated and dated ‘AETATIS SVE 56 AO. 1563’ and ‘AETATIS SVE 54 AO.1563’, top centre
H. 49 cm. W. 34 cm.

PROVENANCE
Collection of Count Schaffgotsch, Austria;
Private collection L. Hitzlisberg, Lucerne, Switzerland;
Sale Fischer, Lucerne, 30 Augus 1933, as ;ot 230;
Sale Christie's, London, 9 July 1999, as lot 140;
European private collection

EXPERTISE
With a dendrochronological analysis by Prof. Dr Peter Klein (dated 19 May 2021), according to which the wooden panel of the portrait of the gentleman was used at the earliest from 1561 upwards and that of the lady was used at the earliest from 1549 upwards. As such, the date of both portraits to the year 1563, as annotated top centre, is supported by the technical analysis.

REFERENCE LITERATURE
Martens, D. (2016). 'Le prétendu Obiit de Lambert Lombard, oeuvre de Barthel Bruyn le Jeune, et le portrait colonais de la Renaissance dans les collections publiques belges.' In: Annales d’Histoire de l’Art & d’Archéologie, nr. 38, pp. 93–113, ill. 12, p. 110.

CATALOGUE NOTE
We are grateful to Dr. Roland Krischel, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, for his assistance in cataloguing these portraits. Dr. Krischel refers to the lady's similarity with a portrait by Bartholomäus Bruyn the Younger, which portrays a lady from the Pilgramm family of Cologne and is kept in the collection of Musées Royeaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique in Brussels (inv.nr. 1379; see: Martens, 2016, p. 110).