National Gallery acquires ‘wildly inventive’ 16th century altarpiece of Virgin and Child by unknown artist

The work was bought for £16,420,000 by private treaty sale in negotiations brokered by Sotheby’s

The National Gallery has acquired an early 16th-century Northern Renaissance altarpiece with the Virgin and Child at its centre by an unknown artist that has not been exhibited since 1960. 

The Netherlandish or French work was bought for £16,420,000 by private treaty sale in negotiations brokered by Sotheby’s.

Titled “The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret”, the oil-on-wood masterpiece dates from around 1510 and was purchased with the support of the American Friends of the National Gallery.

The identity of the artist responsible is unknown, and even their nationality.

While it bears some resemblances to French painters such as Jean Hey, the composition and execution appear to be in the Netherlandish tradition of Jan van Eyck and Hugo van der Goes while parallels can also be found with the early work of Jan Gossaert.

“This painting challenges art historians’ tendency to focus on names and demonstrates that for the late medieval and Renaissance periods, anonymity can intersect with extraordinary quality,” the National Gallery said. The gallery is celebrating its 200th anniversary during 2024‒25.

It includes a depiction of Saint Margaret, sumptuously dressed and rising unharmed from the broken carapace of the frowning, slobbering dragon she defeated and according to the gallery, is “wildly inventive”

The painting was first documented in 1602 in the urban priory of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Drongen, Tronchiennes, in Ghent. Besides the Virgin and Child, it also depicts two saints, two playful angels, a bawdy scene with a naughty child on one of the column capitals and a magnificent slobbering dragon. The painting is of outstanding importance even though its authorship is unknown – even whether the painter was Netherlandish or French is up for debate, the gallery said.

It will go on display from 10 May as part of C C Land: The Wonder of Art, the gallery’s biggest and most ambitious rehang of its collection displays and the opening of the newly transformed Sainsbury Wing.

Emma Capron, curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings at the National Gallery, said: “This is a rare and exciting addition to the National Gallery’s superb collection of Early Netherlandish Paintings. This altarpiece is the work of a talented and highly original artist, and I hope that ongoing research and the painting’s public display will help solve this conundrum in the future.” 

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