Douai acquires panel attributed to Jean Bellegambe after pre-emption

The Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai has acquired ‘Saint évêque avec un orant’, an oil-on-panel painting attributed to Jean Bellegambe by experts consulted by Patrick Deguines and Flavie Raphaël. According to La Tribune de l’Art, the panel was hammered at €48,000 on 11 October and immediately pre-empted for the museum.

The vertically arched work measures 68 × 29 cm and is now listed at the Musée de la Chartreuse. La Tribune de l’Art reports that the experts attributed the work to Bellegambe after Deguines and Raphaël sought their opinion. The attribution is not a settled conclusion: La Tribune de l’Art reports no technical findings or published independent scholarly assessment.

The report also links the Douai panel to one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, suggesting that it may be the reverse of that work. The connection remains uncertain. The bishop’s identity is also unresolved. The figure was first described as Saint Nicholas but remains unknown, according to the report.

The acquisition places the panel with what La Tribune de l’Art describes as Douai’s finest ensemble of Bellegambe panels. The museum says the new acquisition requires further study, restoration and framing.

La Tribune de l’Art does not identify the seller, provenance, auction-house identity or a price including buyer’s premium.