(Paris, late 15th Century - 1532 Avignon)
The Holy Trinity,
inscribed along the upper edge: vray home et dieu createur,
oil on panel, 24.8 x 25.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Drouot, Paris, 1 June 1931, lot 31 (as French School, 15th Century);
with Gimpel Gallery, New York, 1936;
Gimpel collection, Paris 1938;
Private European collection

This lot is sold pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owner and the heirs of René Gimpel.​​​​​​​

Literature:
M. Laclotte, D. Thiébaut, L’École d’Avignon, Paris 1983, pp. 268-269 (as Nicolas Dipre)

The present painting, which may have been part of a larger composition, shows Christ as Ecce Homo with bound hands, and God the Father. The mouths of the Son and the Father are linked symbolically by the wings of the dove: they are separate, but united at the same time by the Holy Spirit.

This work by Nicolas Dipre, or D’Ypres, also known as Nicolas D’Amiens, reveals the angular painterly style of the painter, together with his characteristic figure type defined by rustic expressive features. The present work can be compared to La Rencontre à la Porte Dorée in the Musée Comtadin-Duplessis in Carpentras (inv. 1900 no. 196): part of an altarpiece for the cathedral of Saint Siffrein, which was commissioned by the priors of the confraternity of the Conception de la Vierge in 1499. The figure of Saint Joachim, in particular, resembles that of God the Father in the present painting.

Nicolas Dipre was a native of Paris and worked in Avignon from 1495 to 1511, a period for which documents and contracts commissioning altarpieces from him survive. These include, for example, a document dated 1498 in which Dipre agreed to paint an altarpiece for Rodrigue Boutin; the following year he was engaged to execute works for the church in Carpentras and for Saint-Rémy in Avignon. Additionally, he undertook commissions for Baptiste de Ponte in 1508 and for the community of Monteaux in 1514. In 1531, he began an altarpiece for the Saint-Lazare chapel in Avignon which was his final work, which was in part completed by his son, Antoine.