(Antwerp circa 1575–1632)
The Penitent Magdalene,
oil on canvas, 105 x 74 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 18 March 1937, lot 769;
with Galerie Gebhard, Munich;
art market, Munich;
Private collection, Heidelberg;
Private collection, South Germany

We are grateful to Jean-Pierre de Bruyn for endorsing the attribution of the present painting to Abraham Janssens. A written certificate (2019) is available.

Two prototypes of this composition were popular in the seventeenth century. The first prototype is the Penitent Magdalene in Schleissheim, Neues Schloss, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (inv. no. 1762), of which two other versions were sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14 May 2002, lot 51; and Sotheby’s, New York, 4 June 2015, lot 77 (as Follower of Abraham Janssens). The second prototype of this composition is the Penitent Magdalene conserved in the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (inv. no. MH 2011.3). In attributing the present painting to Janssens, Bruyn writes: ‘The hereby studied painting clearly refers to the prototype in Schleissheim and can be accepted as a quality version by Abraham Janssen (and studio). Certainly one of the best versions until today’.