National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo

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Provenance

Giacomo Cattaneo [born 1593], Genoa, husband of the sitter; by inheritance to his sons, Filippo Cattaneo [1619-1684] and Gio. Giacomo Cattaneo [1628-1712], Genoa; by inheritance 1712 to their great-nephew, Nicolò Cattaneo [1676-1746], Genoa;[1] by inheritance to Giambatista Cattaneo, Genoa, by 1780; Nicola Cattaneo, Genoa, by 1827; Cattaneo della Volta Collection, until 1906;[2] sold to Antonio Monti, Ferrara, buying with or more likely for (Trotti et Cie., Paris); on joint account December 1906 with (P. & D. Colnaghi, London); on three-way joint account February 1907 with (M. Knoedler and Co., New York);[3] sold 1908 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] Information about the early provenance of the painting is contained in a document from the Cattaneo family archives published by Piero Boccardo, "Ritratti di collezionisti e committenti," in Susan Barnes, Piero Boccardo, et al., Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo, exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997: 53-56. The portraits of Elena Cattaneo Grimaldi and her children (NGA 1942.9.92-94) have stayed together as a group through the centuries, except for a brief period between 1708 and 1712. During those years the portrait of the mother (NGA 1942.9.92) stayed with Gio. Giacomo Cattaneo, while the paintings of Filippo and Maddalena (NGA 1942.9.93-94) had already come to the residence of Niccolò Cattaneo near Portovenere.

[2] See also The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue. Volume I: Paintings, American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German, New York, 1968, 179-180: "Ratti, in 1780 [Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Instruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura, ed architettura ecc... nuovamente ampliata e accresciuta, Genoa, 1780], recorded several [Cattaneo portraits] in the palace of Giambattista Cattaneo, near the Church of San Torpete, and in 1846 Alizeri also referred to them [Federigo Alizeri, Guida Artistica per la Città di Genova, 2 vols., Genoa, 1846-1847]. In May 1857, Otto Mündler wrote in his diary [manuscript now in the National Gallery, London; see Otto Mündler, "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855-1858," ed. Carol Togneri Dowd, Walpole Society 31 (1985): 152 (book 1, f. 85), 276] that there were in the Casa Casaretto eight Van Dycks ('unquestionably original, but all of them formerly enlarged'). Among these he cited (no. 6): 'A young Lady, standing, l. side outwards. A negro holds a red umbrella over her head. Her r. hand holds an orange-flower. White ruff and red cuffs, on a black dress. The negro dressed in yellow. Background a terrasse, a landscape; fine sky. Size of life. Splendid.' Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, director of the National Gallery of London, also visited Genoa in 1857. In his notes (preserved in the library of the National Gallery, London) he writes: '30 Aug. 1857. Genoa. The Cattaneo "Vandyck" most of them (there are eight in number) are very sketchy & being on a dark ground have suffered ... The whole length lady with a black servant holding a red umbrella over her is ... [ruined?].'"

[3] Information on Monti and the relationship between Trotti, Colnaghi, and Knoedler is from records available in the Getty Provenance Index. [PC1]Cap D?

Exhibition History

1909
Exhibition of Portraits by Van Dyck from the Collections of Mr. P.A.B. Widener and Mr. H.C. Frick, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1909, no. 4.
1990
Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 36, color repro.
1992
Genova nell'età Barocca, Galleria Nazionale della Liguria (in the Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria), Genoa, 1992, no. 172, repro.
1993
The Age of Rubens, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1993-1994, no. 39, repro.
1997
Van Dyck a Genova: Grande pittura e collezionismo, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997, no. 43, repro.
2004
Anton Van Dyck: Riflessi italiani, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2004, no. 7. repro.

Bibliography

1913
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch, and Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.
1930
Valentiner, W. R. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. New York, 1930: not paginated, no. 45, repro.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 122, repro.
1935
Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 157, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 157, repro.).
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 7.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 92, color repro.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 71, repro.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 40, color repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 87
1960
Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 9, 36-37, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 176, repro.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:272, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 39, repro.
1970
Jaffé, Michael. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting." Studies in the History of Art 1969 (1970): 26, 28, fig. 31.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 120, repro.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 66, pl. 51, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 260, no. 331, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 146, repro.
1985
Mündler, Otto. "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler." Ed. Carol Togneri Dowd. Walpole Society 51 (1985): 152, 276.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 323, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 50, repro.
1994
Barnes, Susan J., Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Anthony van Dyck: An Afterword." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 367.
1994
Cataldi Gallo, Marzia, "Per una Storia del Costume Genovese nel Primo Quarto del Seicento." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 118-119.
1999
Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 139, color repro.
2004
Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: II.45.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 224-225, no. 177, color repro.
2005
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 40-46, color repro.
2009
Gariff, David, Eric Denker, and Dennis P. Weller. The World's Most Influential Painters and the Artists They Inspired. Hauppauge, NY, 2009: 69, color repro.
2010
Gustin Gomez, Clémentine. L’avènement du plaisir dans la peinture française, de Le Brun à Watteau. Dijon, 2011: 250-251, color repro.

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