Watermark: none visible through lining.
Claude Vignon, to whom this sheet was attributed, was one of many artists who produced painted versions of the Adoration of the Magi in the 1620s-50s. Works by French, Flemish and Italian artists feature variations on this popular composition utilizing many of the same elements. What distinguishes this design is its exaggerated vertical format, its architectural (rather than rural) setting (lacking any suggestions of a lean-to or ruins housing the Holy Family), that only two of the three kings are noticeably depicted (and that the artist eschewed representing a Black king), and the inclusion of an elegantly posed roman soldier in the foreground who reclines alongside two dogs on a leash held by a boy accompanying the king. This arrangement of the figures in an open oval configuration and the strong diagonal of the composition are not common features of the many Adoration scenes from this period. The architecture, and view of a domed church in the distance, points more to an Italian author, or to a French artist working in Italy. The use of red chalk wash and blue watercolor is another distinctive feature and one that sets it apart from Vignon's oeuvre.
Paola Pacht Bassani (Claude Vignon 1593-1670 exh. cat. Tours, 1993-94, p. 523-24) rejected the sheet as by Vignon and suggested it may be by another French master active around 1620-30.
Duval le Camus, J. A., 1814-1878, former owner.
Chennevières, Philippe de, 1820-1899, former owner.
Petit-Horry, Jacques, former owner.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 387.