Lot 1515 D α

This beautiful work shows a half-figure depiction of a lady as Saint Cecilia gazing out towards the beholder. The piece was formerly ascribed to Gerard de Lairesse, but Peter van den Brink recently suggested a much more convincing attribution to Joachim von Sandrart. Van den Brink's arguments are primarily based on stylistic comparison with the famous series of the months painted for Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. Sandrart painted these works between 1642 and 1644, and they represent the highlight of his artistic career. The compositional similarities are unmistakable: The half-figure turned towards the viewer, the close-up view with only a small area of the background visible and the similar colour palette. There are particularly obvious parallels to the allegories of the months of January, May, July and September. However, despite this, van den Brink assumes that the work was created shortly after his return to Amsterdam in 1644 and not whilst still in Munich.
After training as a printer in Nuremberg under Peter Isselburg, and later under Aegidius Sadeler in Prague. He worked in the studio of Gerard Honthorst in Utrecht from 1624-25 and met Rubens in 1627. After a longer stay in London he began a Grand Tour of Italy in 1629, settling in Rome in 1632 and remaining there for eight years. He later moved to the wealthy city of Amsterdam, where he gained a reputation as a talented and intellectual artist with a wide network of acquaintances. His patrons included the influential Bicker family, and van den Brink supposes that the sitter of this painting could be the beautiful Alida Bicker.