GOTTFRIED DE WEDIG (1583-1641)

A HEAVENLY MUSICAL COMPANY - POSSIBLY SAINT CECILIA AT HER KEYBOARD
Signed with monogram & dated u.m. GDW F / 1608
Pen & ink with brown wash, with traces of black & red chalk
14.5 x 19.5 cm | 27 x 33.5 cm (Framed)
 
PROVENANCE:
With Galerie de Bayser, Paris (as Cornelis de Witte);
From whom acquired in 1978 by a previous owner;
Private collection, Paris
 
 
 
Drawings by the early German artist Gottfried de Wedig are extremely rare, with just three examples in institutional collections worldwide: a passion scene in the Louvre, Paris; an adoration scene in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new York; and an Allegory of the Fall and Redemption of Mankind, in the British Museum, London. 
 
 
De Wedig, sometimes called Gotthard von Wedig, was born in Cologne and is thought to have studied under his grandfather, Barthel Bruyn the Younger, a prominent figure in the politics of Cologne and an accomplished portraitist. We know precious little about de Wedig's career after this: he painted a number of portraits which demonstrate his considerable skill in this genre [1]; however, the largest body of work that survives are his still lives, and several of these chiaroscuresque compositions, dominated by the candle that lights the scene, suggest an affinity with his Dutch contemporaries' work. 
 
 
The present drawing calls to mind a painting by de Wedig that is something of an anomaly within his ouevre, titled 'A Musical Reunion', now in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne: that work shows a woman seated at a large keyboard, surrounded by seven children, and another lady (possibly her sister) who holds an infant. The painting was executed c.1615-1616, and so it is possible that De Wedig referred back to our sheet when considering how to execute this altogether different, secular genre scene or portrait some seven years later.