(Antwerp 1614–1677)
The Annunication of the Virgin,
oil on copper, 68.5 x 87 cm, framed

Provenance:
Old Spanish private collection, Madrid.

We are grateful to Dr Ursula Härting, Hamm, and Professor Hans Vlieghe for identifying the artist. We are also grateful to Dr Katlijne van der Stighelen, who has independently confirmed the authorship of van Herp.

This work as yet unpublished throws interesting light on the work of the Antwerp artists of the late Rubens period, especially onto the role played by Willem van Herps as the business partner of the dealers, Willem Fourchoudt, Matthijs Musson and Maria Fourmenois. They took care of the unprecedented exporting of Herp’s work to Spain. His pictures, mostly painted on copper were very well received by the nobility in Spain, which explains why so many of his works are still to be found in that country. Matias Diaz Padrón undertook research into this phenomenon for the first time in 1977, acknowledging the significance of Willem van Herp in the continuance internationally of the Antwerp High Baroque. Herp was documented for the first time in the books of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1637. He took up employment with Peter Paul Rubens, although to date it has not been able to document this. He managed to establish himself as a successful artist rapidly and worked together with the dealer and agent, Matthijs Musson from 1651, who contributed considerably to his financially successful due to his exporting of Herp’s pictures to Spain. Herp preferred copper panels as pictorial supports, which lent his works an extraordinary colourfulness and freshness. Most of Herp’s works are based on religious themes and were almost all painted on copper, only exceptionally on canvas. Because of the great demand, he repeated his subject matter frequently. There is also a version of this painting on canvas, which was auctioned by Christie’s, New York, on 29.1.1998 as lot 55.