Trier - c.1590 - active at least until 1637
Oil on Panel, 25 x 22 ins (63.5 x 56cm)
Colnaghi 1953
Ray Livingston Murphy, New York
Sarburgh (or Saarburck) is thought to have studied in the Hague with Jan Anthonisz. van Ravensteyn but he was certainly also influenced by the immediate followers of Holbein in Basel. He is documented in Bern for three years after 1620 (1) where many of his major works were painted. In 1631 he was in Cologne and from 1632 settled in The Hague again as court painter to the Court of Nassau - Orange. He painted a portrait of Maria de Medici, who was in The Hague at that time, and of the art dealer Le Blond in 1637 as well as several copies after Holbein (some after otherwise lost pictures).
For the rest of his life he seems to have painted mostly portraits, but it is clear that he came under the influence of the Caravaggesque movement, perhaps through Gerrit van Honthorst who was resident in The Hague at least from 1637. Nicolson (2) lists a single caravaggesque picture (now at The Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA) but it is certain that there are others which are misattributed.
The present work closely follows the technique of the Amherst picture; but the character is of the Swiss portraits in which an austerity of dress and sitter are combined with an almost Flemish method of painting that seems to derive not only from Holbein and Ravestyn, but also Jordaens and the richer Southern Netherlands.
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