Penitent Mary Magdalene On Oak Panel With Atelier Drawings And Paper Collage On The Reverse.

Penitent Mary Magdalene on oak panel with atelier drawings and paper collage on the reverse. Flemish or Dutch school, 17th century

Oil on thin oak panel
Dimensions with frame: 74 x 58 cm
Dimensions without frame: 66 x 50 cm
Possibly Antwerp?

This painting of Mary Magdalene follows an iconographic tradition that spread across Catholic Europe between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, reinterpreted in the North based on Italian models (such as Titian and Guido Reni). The young, blonde figure is probably kneeling in a natural setting. With her breast exposed and hands crossed, she gazes with serenity and humility at a small crucifix and an open book, symbols of the Passion and the Scriptures.

The body is covered with a dark mantle, and the pose suggests interior reflection rather than dramatic display. The scene takes place outdoors, under a veiled sky and among trees, in an atmosphere of solitude and repentance.

The panel has a particularly interesting reverse. It shows slight, natural movement in the oak (a gentle bowing and a minor, unopened split), consistent with its age of around four centuries. To stabilize the support, a paper collage was applied—probably in the late 18th century—including printed texts and drawings in graphite and red chalk. These materials likely came from a painter’s studio. One of the figures, dressed in late 18th-century fashion, supports this dating hypothesis.

This rare reverse—with both decorative and structural function—may be the work of a painter-restorer using materials at hand to reinforce the panel and, perhaps, to leave a visual trace of the intervention.

19th-century frame with genuine gold leaf gilding. Attractive aged patina, minor superficial craquelure.