Lucretia,
oil on canvas, 141 x 101 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Count Nils Bielke-Sack, circa 1721 (according to a seal with coat-of-arms on the reverse of the canvas);
Private European collection;
art market, Stockholm;
where acquired by the present owner

Possible additional provenance (according to Freedberg, see possible literature):
Collection of Queen Christina of Sweden;
Collection of the Duc d’Orleans;
sale, Orleans collection, 1800, lot 157;
Solly Collection, 1847;
art market, London, last recorded in 1850

Possible literature (references to the composition):
A.-J. Dezallier d’Argenville, Abregé de la vie des plus fameux peintres, avec leurs portraits gravés en taille-douce, les indications de leurs principaux ouvrages, quelques réflexions sur leurs caractères, et la maniere de connoître les desseins des grands maîtres. Par M*** de l’Académie royale des sciences de Montpellier, Paris 1762, vol. 1, p. 145 (as del Sarto, Provenance:
‘La reine de Suede’);
L.-A. de Bonafous de Fontenai, Galerie du Palais Royal: gravée d‘après les tableaux des différentes écoles qui la composent: avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres & une description historique de chaque tableau / dédiée à S. A. S. Monseigneur le Duc d‘Orléans Premier Prince du Sang par J. Couché / par Mr. l‘Abbé Louis Abel de Bonafous de Fontenai, Paris 1786, pièce n° 130 (illustrated in an engraving by Noël Le Mire, as Andrea de Sarto);
A. Réveil, J. Duchesne, Musée de peinture et de sculpture, ou recueil des principaux tableaux, statues et bas-reliefs des collections publiques et particulières de l‘Europe, Paris 1833, vol. XI, p. 788, pl. 336 (as Andrea del Sarto);
S. J. Freedberg, Andrea del Sarto, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963, pp. 230, 231 (as Bolognese School, late 16th or early 17th century)

The present composition (possibly the present painting) was recorded in the collection of the Duc d’Orleans and previously in the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden (see op. cit. Freedberg, 1963, p. 230).

The composition (possibly the present painting) was engraved twice and given to Andrea del Sarto. The engraving by Lemire (see fig. 1), which was published in 1786, describes the painting as on canvas:

‘LA MORT DE LUCRECE De la Galerie de S. A. S. Monseigneur le Duc d’Orleans. A. P. D. R. ÉCOLE VENITIENNE. Ier TABLEAU D’ANDRÉ DEL-SARTE, Peint sur Toile, ayant de hauteur 4 Pieds 5 Pouces, sur 3 Pieds 3 Pouces de large. Deux Tableaux d’André del-Sarte font partie de la collection de Mgr le Duc d’Orléans. Celui qui représente la mort de Lucrece, sujet trop connu pour qu’il soit necessaire de l’expliquer ici, est très-bien conservé. Le Dessin en est elegant, la couleur suave et argentine; le Peintre n’a rien négligé pour rendre avec vérité les differentes Etoffes dans les acessoires et la draperie de la figure. Le caractère de tête est admirable par l’expression de la douleur.’

Dezallier d’Argenville (see literature) referred to the painting as being on panel, possibly mistakenly. When Réveil and Duchesne published the catalogue in 1833, they described the painting as transferred from panel to canvas (see literature). If the present Lucretia is the painting engraved in the Orleans collection, which according to Dezallier d’Argenville came from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden, it would have an illustrious royal provenance.

The dimensions recorded are similar to the present painting, and the compostion represented in the engravings is close.

The composition is also recorded in a drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, ‘Lucretia, after Andrea del Sarto’, late 18th Century, pencil, ink and watercolour, signed, inscribed and titled recto, 17.8 x 13.7 cm (sold at Christie’s, The Forbes Collection, 20 February 2003, lot 189).

The painting bears a seal on the reverse of the canvas, with the coat-of-arms of the Bieke and Sack familes. This may provide a provenance for the present painting linking its early history in Sweden with its subsequent appearance on the art market in Paris in the early 18th century. 

Count Niels Bielke married Hedwig Sack in 1721 and moved in francophile aristocratic circles. The Bielke were one of the oldest noble families in Sweden with close ties with the Royal family. Indeed, Gunilla Bielke was Queen of Sweden at the end of the 16th century. Like Queen Christina, Niels Bilke converted to Catholicism. It is therefore possible that a painting such as the present work could have passed from Queen Christina of Sweden’s collection to that of the Bielke family. 

Niels Bielke lived in Stockholm and Paris. His father was Ambassador to France. Interestingly, the Paris sojourns of this Swedish nobleman coincide with the first appearance of the present composition on the Paris art market and in the Orleans collection, where it was described with a Swedish provenance (see M. K. Schuchard, Emanuel Swedenborg, Secret Agent on Earth and in Heaven: Jacobites, Jews and Freemasons in Early Modern Sweden, Leiden 2012, p. 183).

Bielke would eventually settle in Rome, where he was received to the papal administration on recommendation of King Louis XV of France. He became a Senator and died in Rome in 1765. A fate not entirely dissimilar to that of Queen Christina. Bielke had no heirs, and his death presents a relatively certain terminus ante quem for the use of the coat-of-arms on the back of the present painting.