Beschreibung:

DescriptionProperty from a Dutch Private Collection
Guillaume Courtois, called Guglielmo CorteseSt Hippolyte, Franche-Comté 1628 - 1679 RomePortrait of a physician, possibly Giovanni Guglielmo Riva (1627–1677), seated half-length, holding a surgical instrument
oil on canvas, in a period elaborate carved and giltwood frameunframed: 100.5 x 74.9 cm.; 39½ x 29½ in.framed: 140.9 x 117.8 cm.; 55½ x 46½ in.Condition reportTo request a Condition Report, please contact oldmasterconditionreports@sothebys.com.
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The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.ProvenanceAnonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 29 January 1999, lot 35 (sold for $420,500);
With Rob Smeets, Milan;
Acquired by the present collector at TEFAF in 2007 (all the above as by Carlo Maratta).LiteratureF. Petrucci (ed.), I volti del potere, Ritratti di uomini illustri a Roma dall'Impero Romano al Neoclassicismo, Rome 2004, p. 168, under no. 75;
F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, Rome 2008, vol. 2, p. 304, under no.  2, reproduced vol. 3, p. 535, fig. 138 (here and above as Courtois).Catalogue notePlease note that this painting is sold with both an original 17th-century gilt frame and a modern reproduction dark frame.
At the time of the sale in 1999, the attribution to Carlo Maratta was endorsed by Stella Rudolph. Francesco Petrucci in his compendium of Roman portraiture from the seventeenth century, proposes instead to attribute the painting to the French Cortonesque painter Guillaume Courtois known as il Borgognone. Petrucci, quoting Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco's attribution to Courtois, specifically compares the present sitter's hand, both in its pose and in the handling of paint, as well as the description of the shimmering drapery, to that in Courtois' Allegorical Self-Portrait in the Koelliker Collection in Milan.1
In the 1999 sale catalogue Rudolph suggested that the sitter is one of the foremost professori de Anatomia in Rome, Giovanni Guglielmo Riva, master of the famous anatomists Giovanni Maria Lancisi and Giovanni Baglivi, among others, who attended his School of Anatomy at the Ospedale della Consolazione, Rome. A later portrait of Riva, known only through a poor oval engraving by an anonymous artist, shows a man of more advanced years but with undoubtedly similar facial features. Riva accompanied Cardinal Flavio Chigi (nephew to Pope Alexander VII) on his 1664 visit to Paris as Legate, and was on that occasion appointed surgeon to Louis XIV. Rudolph went on to mention that Riva made a will prior to his departure from Rome, in which his collection of paintings did not include a portrait of himself. However, just prior to his death on 17 October 1677, there are three such portraits listed. One of them, un ritratto di detto Guglielmo con cornice di noce, is very possibly the same as the present painting. A date of 1668–9 on stylistic grounds for the present painting would correspond to the period when Riva was the chief physician to Pope Clement IX.
The sitter appears to be holding a 'volsella', a tweezer like instrument used by surgeons to extract bone fragments from fractures.2 Such medical instruments, attributes that are entirely consistent for a professor of anatomy, were also used to remove gunshot from wounds and specks from the eye.
1 Petrucci 2008, vol. 2, p. 304, reproduced.2 We are grateful to Stephanie Cornwell for identifying the medical instrument that appears in this painting.