A newly restored and rediscovered 16th-century painting by Flemish Renaissance artist Quentin Metsys, The Madonna of the Cherries, was recently snapped up by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles at Christie's London for £10.6 million (US$13.5 million) with fees. The result set an auction high for the artist, beating the €1.5 million set for Mary in Prayer in 2020.
Long thought to have been lost for centuries, the work resurfaced at auction in 2015, when it was identified as the work of Metsys' studio and fetched only £254,500 due to the additions of a thick layer of discolored varnish and a green curtain painted over the background landscape.
Following the sale, the work went through a significant conversation treatment, restoring it to what is recognized as the prime version of Metsys’ masterpiece.
In a statement, the Getty Museum announces that the work will go on view in the Getty Center’s North Pavilion in the coming weeks.
The Madonna of the Cherries hammered for £9 million
Lot 4 | Quentin Metsys (Leuven 1465/6-1530 Antwerp) | The Madonna of the Cherries, Oil on panel
75.3 x 62.9 cm
Provenance (Supplemented by The Value):
- Cornelis van der Geest (1577-1638), Antwerp, by 1615, and on display by 1628 in the Huis de Keizer, Mattenstraat, backing on to the Werf on the Scheldt, and probably by inheritance to his nephew,
- Cornelis de Licht (d. 1663), by whom sold shortly thereafter to,
- Peeter Stevens (c. 1590-1668), Antwerp, as ‘La Vierge de Quentin Metsys’, by whose heirs sold at ‘feu SR. Pierre Stevens, En son vivant Aumônier de la Ville d'Anvers’, Antwerp, 13 August 1668 (=1st day), lot 10, as ‘Quentin Matsijs, Une très-célèbre Pièce de la Vierge Marie’.
- Amable-Charles Franquet, Comte de Franqueville (1840-1919); (†) his sale, Château de La Muette, Paris, 31 May 1920 (=1st day), lot 23, as ‘Attribué à Quentin Metsys’, when acquired for 50,000 francs by,
- Madame Darcy, Paris, and by descent to the following,
- Anonymous sale [From the Château de La Muette, Paris]; Christie’s, London, 9 July 2015, lot 6, as ‘Studio of Quentin Metsys’, when acquired by the present owner. (Sold: £254,500)
Estimate: £8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Hammer Price: £9,000,000
Sold: £10,660,000 (US$13.46 million)
Auction House: Christie's London
Sale: Old Masters Part I
Date: 2 July 2024
The foremost painter in Antwerp during the early 16th century, Quentin Metsys was widely recognized as the founding figure of the so-called Antwerp School of painting, his followers a century or so later included Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
As part of his ascension to the role as the "father" of the Antwerp School, legends were written of his youth. In the story well known to early modern Antwerpians, Mestys came from a humble family of blacksmiths and would practice this craft until twenty.
Precisely why he set aside his sledgehammers and picked up a paintbrush is not known. Some believed it was due to physical impairment, but it's the romantic version of the story that would gain the widest currency: the young blacksmith would fall in love with a beautiful girl, who, despite her affection for Mestys, had none for his profession. Realizing his rival was a painter, Metsys dedicated himself to the art of painting.
Quentin Metsys | Mary in Prayer | Sold: €1,580,000, Kunsthaus Lempertz, 2020 (Previous auction record for the artist)
Whatever the truth, Metsys certainly bloomed in his new métier, developing a distinct personal style derived from Netherlandish visual traditions and significant Italian artistic developments. He was particularly renowned for his compelling portraits – often with satirical tendencies – and religious works that reflect earnestness in expression, minutely detailed renderings, and subdued effects in light and shade.
While many of his works now grace museums worldwide, arguably the most well-known is The Ugly Duchess, kept by The National Gallery in London, which is the prototype for John Tenniel's depiction of the Duchess in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Quentin Metsys | The Virgin Enthroned, also called the "Butter Madona" | Collection of Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Quentin Metsys | An Old Woman ("The Ugly Duchess") | Collection of The National Gallery, London
The first recorded owner of Madonna of the Cherries was the wealthy spice merchant and renowned art collector Cornelis van der Gees. According to contemporary accounts, he refused to sell the work, his most prized possession, to the regents of the Spanish Netherlands, Archduke Albert VII of Austria and Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia.
The episode was recorded in a 1628 picture by the Antwerp School painter Willem van Haecht, The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest. Depicted seated in the bottom left corner, the regents, amid myriad fine paintings, offered to acquire one work in particular: Metsys' The Madonna of the Cherries.
In front of them, Van der Geest takes pride of place, gesturing towards the work with his hand to his heart as if stirred with emotion. Mid-17th-century literary sources, too, recounted the event: "The archduke so fell in love with this picture of Mary that he used all the means of the suitor to acquire the same. But since two minds with but a single thought were opposed to each other, the owner’s and the archduke’s, his Highness was rejected with the most respectful courtesy and own love prevailed above the favour of the prince."
Willem van Haecht | The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest (1628) | Collection of Rubenshuis, Antwerp
The collector Cornelis van der Geest shows The Madonna of the Cherries to Archduke Albert VII of Austria and Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia
The scene is filled out by an assemblage of significant merchants, civil officials, and artists – all there to admire Van der Geest's stunning collection. Peter Paul Rubens, for instance, can be seen at the shoulder of the archduke, extolling the painting's virtue to him.
Also present is the subsequent owner of the piece: the collector Peeter Stevens, who is seen resting his right elbow on a table at the gallery's center, the other hand holding a small portrait. The Madonna of the Cherries would remain with him until his death in 1668, when his heirs auctioned it to an unknown buyer. All trace of the painting was lost following that sale.
Getty Center’s North Pavilion in Los Angeles
Quentin Metsys | Christ as the Man of Sorrows | Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Already acknowledged as a masterpiece in its day, the painting became especially famous after it disappeared from public view in the 17th century. While that resulted in many copies of it being painted, none was ever deemed of sufficiently high quality to be considered Metsys’ original.
The painting resurfaced in 1920 at a sale in Paris, by then disguised by a few additions, most notably a translucent green curtain over the window. With this overpainting and a thick layer of discolored varnish, when it hit the market in 2015 at Christie’s, scholars continued to consider it one of the fine examples of a studio variant. At the time, the work fetched £254,000 with fees.
Only after subsequent conservation, which saw the removal of both, was its former glory revealed, enabling scholars to recognize it as the prime version of Metsys’ masterwork. Now that the work enters the Getty collections, whether or not it will join Christ as the Man of Sorrows, which the museum purchased in 2018, on display remains to be seen.