Portrait of a Lady - Provenance

Rogier van der Weyden
Netherlandish, 1399/1400 - 1464
Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460
oil on panel
painted surface: 34 x 25.5 cm (13 3/8 x 10 1/16 in.) Overall (panel): 37 x 27 cm (14 9/16 x 10 5/8 in.) framed: 60.9 x 53.3 x 11.4 cm (24 x 21 x 4 1/2 in.)
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
1937.1.44

From the Tour: Netherlandish Painting in the 1400s
Object 4 of 9

Provenance

Probably Leopold Friedrich Franz, Prince of Anhalt [d. 1817], Gotisches Haus, Wörlitz, near Dessau.[1] Probably Leopold Friedrich, Prince of Anhalt [d. 1871]; Friedrich I, Duke of Anhalt [d. 1904];[2] Friedrich II, Duke of Anhalt, Gotisches Haus, Wörlitz, and Herzogliches Schloss, Dessau, until 1925. (Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague, 1925).[3] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris), in 1926; purchased December 1926 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] For the activity of this prince as a collector, see C. Rost, "Der alte Nassau-Oranische Bilderschatz und sein späterer Verbleib," Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft 6 (1873), 52-93. The numerous portraits in the Anhalt collection are not very precisely described in the early catalogues. However, Lorne Campbell has suggested that 1937.1.44 may be identical with no. 1318, "Dirk Bouts(?), Weibliches Porträt in schwarzer Kleidung mit rothem Gürtel," in the bedroom of Duke Franz in the Gotisches Haus; Wilhelm Hosäus, Wörlitz. Ein Handbuch für die Besucher des Wörlitzer Gartens und die Wörlitzer Kunstammlungen, 2d ed. (Dessau, 1883), 40.

[2] Bruges, Hôtel de Gouvernement Provincial, 1902, Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien, no. 108, lists the Duke as the current owner.

[3] See ArtNews (10 October 1925), 6 and (24 October 1925), 1.

Associated Names

Full Screen Image
Artist Information
Bibliography
Detail Images
Exhibition History
Location
Narratives

back to gallery

continue tour