(active in Brussels during the 2nd quarter of the 16th century) The Kinship of the Virgin Mary, with an old inventory number of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne (476), oil on panel, 52 x 66 cm, carved frame in the Gothic style

Provenance: Heinrich Schlaeger Collection, Cologne; in 1859 presented to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Colonge (Inv. No. 476); collection of the Cologne District President Siegmund Graf Adelmann von und zu Adelmannsfelden; sale, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Berlin, 26–28 April 1927; collection of the industrialist Theodor Freiherr von Guilleaume, Cologne (d. 1933); collection of Hortense Freifrau von Guilleaume, née Mallinckrodt, Cologne and Gudenau Castle (d.. 1951); Rhenish nobility, by way of inheritance. Literature: Inventory of the paintings, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1914, p. 158. In the inventory catalogue of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne from 1914, the present painting is described as follows: “Brussels master, c. 1530, The Kinship of the Virgin Mary, Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary seated on a golden Renaissance throne flanked by grapevine, with the two other Marys and their husbands and children at the front. The latter are playing with hobbyhorses, board games (nine men’s morris), and branches. Next to the Virgin Mary appear Joseph and Emilian and next to Saint Anne, her three husbands… A gift from Mr Heinrich Schlaeger, 1859.” (The latter is difficult to trace in archives and in 1859 also donated to the museum the Arrest of Christ by the Master of the Karlsruhe Passion.) A painting by Coninxloo, The Kinship of Saint Anne, signed and dated 1526, which compares well to our composition, is in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Arenberg). A. J. Wauters (in: Revue de Belgique, 1909, p. 99) attributed a number of further works to Coninxloo, including the triptych from the former Abbey of Dieleghem (now also in the Musées des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). The painting’s provenance is highly interesting: in 1859 it entered the famous collection of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne and was subsequently presented to Count Adelmann by the City of Cologne, from whom it was acquired by Baron Guilleaume. The Palace Guilleaume in Cologne, situated on the Deutscher Ring and built by the imperial court architect Ernst von Ihne, and Gudenau Castle near Bonn accommodated significant works of art, including a ceiling painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and paintings by such artists as Murillo, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Andreas Achenbach. We are grateful to Dr. Roland Krischel of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, for the information about the present picture he kindly supplied.