The first monograph on Albrecht Bouts’s work with an annotated catalog has just been published by the Centre d’étude des Primitifs flamands of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels. The author, Dr. Valentine Henderiks, made a major discovery just before the book was printed: a self portrait of the master belonging to the Brukenthal collection in Sibiu.

Information from the author, 22 November 2011

The painting use to be attributed to the anonymous Master of the Legend of St. Augustine and dated from the beginning of the XVIth century. This portrait shows an elderly man holding a skull with his two hands as a memento mori. Dr. Valentine Henderiks has proven that the appearance of the man represented is similar to that of the self portrait of Albrecht Bouts on the right panel of the triptych of the Assumption of the Virgin from the Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, painted around 1495-1500. In the Sibiu painting, Albrecht Bouts is about 15 years older which allows the author to date the panel around 1520. This major discovery highlights a hitherto under-esteemed painter and gives him finally a major place amongst the Flemish artists of the late Middle Age.

Valentine Henderiks, Albrecht Bouts (1451/55 – 1549), Contributions à l’étude des Primitifs flamands, 10, Louvain, 2011.

Publication available in French and in Dutch, approx. 445 p., 400 ill., CFSP 10, ISBN 978-2-930054-15-5.

The publishers brochure for the book is available for download here (pdf).