by Peter C. Sutton

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota Florida owns a three-quarter length painting of The Holy Family in which the smiling Virgin holds the child in her lap and Joseph appears in the shadows at the upper left (fig. 1). The painting is not only in problematic condition but also presents special problems of attribution. When it was sold in New York in 1930 and later acquired by the circus magnate, John Ringling, it was attributed to the Rembrandt pupil Govaert Flinck (1615-1660).[1] However in 1949 William A. Suida thoughtfully reassigned it to the history painter Leendert van der Cooghen (1610-1681), which brought the discussion of its author into the circle of the Haarlem Classicists.[2] Observing that S.J. Gudlagsson had noted on the photograph mount at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie that a false signature of G. Flinck had been painted above an original signature of which only the letters "de G..." could still be deciphered (and which now are no longer visible), Franklin W. Robinson tentatively reassigned the work in 1980 to either Van der Cooghen or that leader of the Haarlem Classicists, Pieter de Grebber (c. 1600-1653).[3]

1. Here attributed to Pieter Soutman, Holy Family. Canvas (cut down), 114 x 76.3 cm. Sarasota, Florida, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art no. SN242


2. Fig. 1 before treatment in 1978


3. Cornelis van Noorde, Adoration of the Shepherds signed and dated: "Corn. van Noorde, 1793," and inscribed "P. de Grebber pinxit." Pen and watercolor on paper, 34 x 37.5 cm. Haarlem, Gemeentearchief, no. 53-13417

The painting's attribution to de Grebber is of unexpectedly long standing. A copy in watercolor signed by the eighteenth-century Haarlem artist, Cornelis van Noorde (1731 -1795), and inscribed "P. de Grebber pinxit" (fig. 3) indicates that it was advanced at least as early as 1793 and further proves that the painting was cut down from a larger composition depicting the Holy Family with three shepherds on the left and a landscape. In a photograph (fig. 2) taken about 1975, but certainly before the Ringling painting underwent conservation treatment in 1978, the figure of Joseph, whose head and arm are now conspicuously cropped, was painted out, while the foremost shepherd's knee and staff were just visible in the lower corner - details which are now no longer visible. When the painting was cut is unknown but certainly before the sale in 1930. The greater part of the surface is badly abraded, overcleaned and extensively retouched. One detail which may still be a restorer's later addition (or possibly a pentimento brought up inadvertently by overzealous cleaning) is the Virgin's right hand, which appears supporting the Christ Child both before and after conservation treatment but did not figure in van Noorde's watercolor copy (compare figs. 1, 2 and 3).