Skip to main content

Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart), 'The Adoration of the Kings'

Exhibitions, copies and versions

Exhibitions

Possibly London 1787 (at Greenwood's, Leicester Square: see above); London BI 1851 (1); Manchester 1857 (provisional catalogue 517; definitive catalogue 436); London RA 1885 (230); NG 1945–6 (9); NG 2000 (31); NG 2011 (8).

Copies

Many copies are known, all of which appear to be seventeenth century or later.

1. Sir Charles Turner (deceased) sale, Berlin (Lepke), 17 November 1908 (30), painted on copper, 80 x 74 cm.

2. Private collection, Belgium (photographs at the NG).

3. Formerly in the church of Our Lady of the Zavel, Brussels: seen there in the 1620s by Dubuisson-Aubenay.31

4. Formerly in the Cremer collection, Dortmund, on canvas, 217 x 165 cm.32

5. Formerly at Geraardsbergen, abbey church of St Adrian, a copy, replacing the original, was still there at the end of the eighteenth century.33

6. Mexico City, Museo de San Carlos, panel, 80 x 73 cm.34

7. Wittelsbacher Ausgleichfonds, Munich, WAF 163, on panel, 119 x 87 cm, stated to be dated 1601.35

8. Parish church of St John the Baptist, Nethen (south of Leuven, north-east of Wavre), 154 x 150 cm.36

9. National Gallery, Prague (O 10488), on canvas, 100 x 73.5 cm, monogrammed IF (? for Joseph Führich, 1800–1876), acquired in 1949 from the National Restoration Fund, Prague.37

10. Tula Art Museum, Tula (south of Moscow), panel, 131.5 x 98 cm, stated to be dated 1601.38

George Scharf's copies, made at the exhibitions of 1857 and 1885, are in his sketchbooks at the National Portrait Gallery: SSB 47, pp. 41–2; SSB 111, fols 9v–14. The picture was photographed in 1857: see 'Photographs of "Gems of the Art Treasures Exhibition", Manchester 1857' by Signori Caldesi and Montecchi, London and Manchester 1858, 'Ancient Series', No. 12.

Versions

An 'Adoration of the Kings', formerly in the Ashburnham collection and now in the Maternuskapelle of Cologne Cathedral (painted on oak, 125 x 225 cm: fig.9), may be classified as a free version.39


fig.9 Follower of Jean Gossart, 'Adoration of the Kings' © Cologne Cathdral

Further Sections