Anonymous sale ('P꧃roperty from an Important Private Collection'), New York, Christie's, 7 October 2022, lot 32, for $27,720;

Where acquired by the present owner.

This painting relates closely to the celebrated picture in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, by Titian (1485/90–1576), of about 1515.¹ Interestin🌞gly, however, there is a notable difference in the depiction of the female figure, who is here presented nude, while in the Louvre painting she is fully clothed. Likewise, the reflection in the mirror upper right is more detailed in the present work than in the Louvre pictur𒐪e.

These elements, combined with the fact that this picture was executed on an oak panel support – a species of wood rarely employed by Italian painters – suggest that it was produced by an artist working north of the Alps. Indeed, the sculptural handling of the woman's anatomy is reminiscent of that found in the work of Vincent Sellaer (1490–1564) and Michiel Coxcie the Elder (1499–1592). In a similar vein, the greater focus on the reflection in the convex mirror – where the artist has sketched out images of the figures from behind, as well as an intriguing allusion to the interior in which they are situated, with a panelled ceiling and a window opening onto a turquoise sky – is characteristic of the work of northern artists since the time of Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441).²

A treatment of Titian's composition by Nuremberg painter Barthel Beham (c. 1502–1540), monogrammed with the artist's initials BB (in ligature) and dated 1534, in the Kunstsammlungen und Museen, Augsburg, provides another instance in which a northern artist can be seen to have engaged with this particular design.³ This version portrays the lady attired in the same clothes as the ones she wears in the Louvre painting, but replaces her male suitor with a female attendant. Beham appears to have travelled to Italy and his early biographers recount that he died in Bologna in 1540, so it is possible that he saw Titian's original in Mantua, where the painting likely entered the Gonzaga collection shortly after 1523.⁴ The existence of other contemporary copies,⁵ though, combined with Titian's indisputable notoriety throughout Europe during and since his lifetime, suggest that this design may have even been known to artists who had not travelled to the peninsu⛄la.

Other variants of Titian's composition in which the female figure is depicted nude are known: these include, among others, the Allegory of Love given to his workshop in the National Gallery of Art, Washington,⁶ a panel sold at Christie’s London in 1971 (as Flemish School [after Titian]), formerly in the collections of Prince Ourasoff, Prince Menschikoff and Pierre Bezine,⁷ and a work sold at Christie's New York in 2022 (as Northern Follower of Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian), for $189,000.⁸ The existence of so many paintings which feature the nude lady could suggest that they all correspond to an autograph painting by Titian of this design that remains untraced.⁹

¹ Inv. no. 755, oil on canvas, 99 x 76 cm.; .

² Van Eyck famously experimented with this motif in his Arnolfini Portrait of 1434 in the National Gallery, London: Inv. no. NG186; oil on oak panel, 82.2 x 60 cm.; . Clara Peeters (active circa 1607–1621 or after) and later Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)🏅 are among the other northern artists renowned for having played with the artistic possibilities brought about by reflection.

³ Inv. no. L 841; tempe🎀ra and oil on linden wood, 96.9 x 78.7 cm.

⁴ This is the earliest known provenance for the Louvre picture; the circumstances of the commission remain unknown. In 1627, the Gonzagas sold the painting to King Charles I of England (1600–1649) and it is recorded in his inventory of 1🗹639. The work left the royal collection after Charles' execution: it appeared for sale in London on 23 October 1651, lot 269, and was acquired by the Cologne-born banker and merchant Everhard Jabach (1618–1695), who was later forced to sell it to Louis XIV of France (1643–1715) in 1662.

⁵ Many of these are listed in H. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vols, London 197♏5, vol. III ('The Mythological and H꧒istorical Paintings'), pp. 163–165, nos 23–24, pls 29 and 32.

⁶ Accession no. 1939.1.259;🧜 oil on canvas, 91.4 🐓x 81.9 cm.; .

⁷ London, Christie's, 14 May 1971, lot 24; oil on panel, 98 �🐓�x 74.9 cm.

⁸ New York, Chr๊istie's, 10 June 2022, lot 20; oil on panel, 109 x 79 cm.

⁹ For more on this idea, see P. Joannides and R. Featherstone, 'A Painting by Titian from the Spanish Royal Collection at Apsley House, London', Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin, 5, 2014, p. 73.