Attributed to Paolo Caliari, il Veronese Verona 1528-1588 Venice - Portrait of a gentleman, seated three-quarter length

oil on canvas - 53 x 38¾ in. 134.6 x 98.4 cm. Price Realized: $49,000

Provenance: with Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1927.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Literature: D. Hadeln, Burlington Magazine, November 1924, p. 211, no. 260, illustrated.
P.H. Osmond, Paolo Veronese: His career and work, London, 1927.
A. Venturi, Paolo Veronese per il IV centiario della nascita, Milan, 1928, p. 203, no. 141, illustrated.
G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, Bologna, 1928, p. 1, no. 82, illustrated.
G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, Rome, 1934.
A. Venturi, 'Paolo Veronese', Storia dell'Arte italiana, IX-4, p. 861.
R. Marini, L'opera completa del Veronese, Milan, 1968.
T. Pignatti, Veronese, Venice, I-II, 1976, p. 129, no. 144, fig. 401.
R. Palluchini, Veronese, Milan, 1984, p. 90.
Old master paintings: An illustrated summary catalogue, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst (The Netherlandish Office for the Fine Arts), The Hague, 1992, p. 302, no. 2670, illustrated (as 'Paolo Veronese').
T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Paolo Veronese, Milan, 1995, p. 274, no. 178, illustrated.

Exhibited: Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansche kunst in Nederlandsch bezit, July-October 1934, no. 407.
Chancery of the Holy See, Rome, on loan.

Notes: The present portrait has been accepted as autograph by Osmond (1927) and Fiocco (1934), as well as more recently by Teresio Pignatti and Filippo Pedrocco (1995), though Marini expressed some reservations (1968). Stylistically it relates to two other portraits of gentlemen, one in Amsterdam and one in Dresden, and the three-quarter-length format was a favorite of the artist. The bold brushwork and dark tonality of the composition, with the black-robed, dark-bearded sitter set against a somber ground, suggest a later dating.

CHRISTIE'S NEW YORK, ROCKEFELLER PLAZA. 15 APRIL 2008. IMPORTANT OLD MASTER PAINTINGS