Huyghe assessment on Schloss paintings

René Huyghe sent to Jaujard his assessment of the Schloss paintings that he conducted with Germain Bazin. He recommended a set of paintings for acquisition by the Louvre, including the following:  1. There are works by extremely rare, great primitive masters whose absence from the Louvre has long been deplored, including a Pietà by Petrus Christus, follower of van Eyck, a Virgin by Adrien Isenbrandt and a “Venus” by Jean Gossaert Mabuse. These three works were catalogued and reproduced by Max Friedlander in his large inventory of early Dutch paintings. 2. There are masterpieces by great Dutch Masters of the 17th century: Brouwer, Velvet Breughel, Van der Heyden, Van Goyen, Van der Neer, Paul Potter, Rembrandt, Ruisdael that are already represented in the Louvre’s collections, but they are not equivalent to the ones found in the Schloss Collection. Rembrandt’s landscape will allow for a significant gap to be filled, although the landscape is not of the same quality as other famous landscapes of Rembrandt. This is probably because it does not feature in “Rembrandts Gemälde” (ed. 1934) of Bredius. But it appears in catalogues of Hofstede de Groot, Wurzbach, Bode and Valentiner (Klassiker der Kunst). An estimate of 3.5 million was obtained. There is also a “Marine” Van Goyen. Three paintings by Brouwer were selected, the Schloss Collection being particularly famous for the works of this painter. Two compelling works and “The Merry Companion” monogrammed table, catalogued and reproduced by Schmidt-Degener, were kept. 3. Works of the highest quality bearing an authentic signature by small Masters which are not represented in the Louvre’s collections, and are very rare. In particular:  two landscapes by Saenredam and Jacobus Vrel. Only a small number of works are known by these two painters and the Louvre had so far been looking for these Masters in vain. Many of the selected paintings are genuine masterpieces, signed by Boursse, Brekelencamp, Craesebeck, Koedjick, Molenaer and others. 4. In the French School, Huyghe proposes to retain three portraits of Corneille de Lyon or of his school, one of which is one of the few absolutely authentic works by the Master. The suggested price for the 48 selected paintings amounts to 18,975,000 francs. Postma produced the estimates. Huyghe argued that it would be deplorable if the Schloss collection, the last of the great Dutch art galleries established in France during the 19th century, were to end up abroad.  With this acquisition, the Dutch painting gallery at the Louvre, which has already enjoyed an improvement in prestige by the donation of the “Princesse de Croy”, would become the first Dutch gallery in the world, immediately after the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis in The Hague. [Correspondence from Conservateur en Chef du Département des Peintures (René Huyghe) to Directeur des Musées Nationaux et de l’École du Louvre (J. Jaujard)]