Old Masters and 19th Century Art

Provenance:

(Possibly) the Estate of the Artist's daughter, Cornelia van Uyttenbroeck (as Een heydense offerande (A Pagan Offering)).

Private Collection

Hugo Helbing, Frankfurt am Main, sale of July 3-5, 1934, lot 419 (sold as as circle of Pieter Brueghel the Younger).

Monsieur Van Dyk.

Christie's, London, sale of November 30, 1973, lot 122.

Richard Feigen, New York.

Private Collection.

Sotheby's, New York, sale of June 11, 2020, lot 7.

Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner.

Exhibited:

Sacramento, California, E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, The Pre-Rembrandtists, 1974, no. 32

Literature:

Possibly recorded in the 1692 Inventory of the Estate of the Artist's daughter, Cornelia van Uyttenbroeck, no. 65 (as Een heydense offerande (A Pagan Offering)).

Ulrich Weisner, Moyses van Uyttenbroeck: Studien und kritischer Katalog seiner Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Dissertation, Universität Kiel, 1963, no. 25

Ulrich Weisner, "Die Gemälde des Moyses van Uyttenbroeck," Oud Holland, LXXIX, 1964, p. 221, no. 24

Lot Essay:

Italianate River Landscape with Witches Sacrifice and Castle Ruins in a Distance is one of only approximately 70 or so paintings known by Moses van Uyttenbroeck, a relatively rare Dutch artist active in the Hague in the second quarter of the 17th century. He entered the city's painters guild in 1620, and specialized in sweeping Italianate landscapes often animated with historical or mythological subjects. The present example, with the figures confined to the lower right corner, is stylistically similar to other works by Uyttenbroeck from the 1620s, where influence of artists such as Bartholomeus Breenbergh (Dutch, 1598-1657) and Cornelis Van Poelenburgh (Dutch, 1586-1667) are visible.

Within a vast river landscape, three witches tend to the flames of a sacrificial pyre set before a stone statue. Two men in classical attire kneel before the women to present a pile of timber for the fire. To the group’s left, castle ruins loom in the distance. This as-yet unidentified subject may have mythological roots. It may also have its origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses, such as Medea's sacrifices (Book VII), although it does not conform to any specific passage. Other possible sources of visual inspiration may likewise be found in Jacques de Gheyn II's drawings and prints of witchcraft, including one such example, Witches’ Sabbath, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. De Gheyn II completed many such works between 1600-1610 while living in The Hague, where Uyttenbroeck lived and worked all his life.

In his 1964 Oud Hollande article, “The Paintings of Moses van Wtenbrouck,” art historian Ulrich Weisner was the first to surmise that this painting may be the one listed in the estate inventory of the artist's daughter, Cornelia van Uyttenbroeck, as Een heydense offerande, or as translated, A pagan offering. However, as many Pre-Rembrandtist history paintings are recorded with this title in inventories and auction catalogues, the identification of the painting in Cornelia's collection may never be fully certain.