National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Portrait of a Youth
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

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Provenance

James-Alexandre, comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier [1776-1855], Paris, by 1841;[1] (Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, 27 March-4 April 1865, 1st day, no. 87, as by Masaccio [sale began February 6; sale of paintings began March 27]); Henri-Joseph-François, baron de Triqueti [1804-1874], Paris;[2] by inheritance to his daughter, Mme Lee-Childe, baronne de Triqueti, Paris; (Triqueti sale, Paris, 4 May 1886, no. 4). ("a Paris expert's junk shop").[3] Baron Arthur de Schickler [1828-1919], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy (near Cherbourg); by inheritance to his daughter, Marguerite, Comtesse Hubert de Pourtalès [1870-1956], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy; sold June 1920 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, and New York) in part-share agreement with (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York) and (Arnold Seligmann & Co., Paris);[4] on approval to Carl W. Hamilton [1886-1967], New York, by 1920, and returned 1921;[5] Clarence H. Mackay [1874-1938], Roslyn, New York, by 1924 until at least the mid-1930s;[6] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[7] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] See Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois, Descriptions des tableaux faisant partie des collections de M. le Comte de Pourtalés-Gorgier, Paris, 1841: 4, no. 4.

[2] The painting was described as being in the Triqueti collection by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, from the II to the XVI Century, German ed. trans. Max Jordan, 6 vols. in 8 parts, Leipzig, 1870: 3:178. An annotated copy of the 1865 Pourtalès-Gorgier sale catalogue in the NGA Library indicates the buyer was Triqueti.

[3] According to Bernard Berenson, "A Botticelli Portrait in the Collection of Mr. Carl W. Hamilton," Art in America 10, no. 1 (December 1921): 29, who stated that he had seen the painting there "twelve or more years" earlier.

[4] The Baron's daughter, who married Comte Hubert de Pourtalès in 1890, was her father's sole heir. Edward Fowles (Memories of Duveen Brothers, London, 1976: 102-103, 134) discusses the original purchase agreement with Wildenstein and Seligmann for some of the works in the Schickler collection, and the subsequent agreement in 1922 that divided the works among the three dealers. Although Fowles indicates the sale took place in April 1919, the list of expenses for the painting in the Duveen Brothers Records show the purchase was made the next year (copy in NGA curatorial files; X Book, Reel 422 [see also Reel 45, Box 133, folder 1], Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).

[5] According to Fowles 1976: 127-129, a large collection of Italian paintings was offered on approval to Hamilton by 1920, but he did not purchase them and returned them to Duveen the following year.

[6] In the 1924 New York exhibition the painting was already exhibited as part of the Mackay collection. In 1930, as a consequence of the Depression, Mackay closed his mansion at Roslyn and began to sell his works of art with the assistance of Duveen Brothers (see Fowles 1976: 157). As Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Italian ed., trans. Emilio Cecchi, Milan, 1936: 90, still lists the picture as being in Roslyn, Duveen Brothers must not have acquired it by that year.

[7] The original Duveen Brothers in invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1924
Loan Exhibition of Important Early Italian Paintings in the Possession of Notable American Collectors, Duveen Brothers, New York, 1924, no. 19 (no. 13 in illustrated 1926 version of catalogue).
1929
Loan Exhibition of Primitives, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1929, no. 5.
1930
Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 133a in 4th ed. of catalogue (no. 231 in commemorative catalogue published 1931; not in 1st ed. of catalogue or souvenir catalogue).
1935
Fifteenth Century Portraits, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1935, no. 11, repro.

Bibliography

1937
Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 79, repro.
1941
Duveen 1941, fig. 101.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 28.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 76.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 20, repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 22, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 300, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 17
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:50, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 10, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 36, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:79-80, II:pl. 52
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 97, no. 61, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 55, repro.
1996
Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Tenth Edition. Fort Worth, 1996: 719-720, color fig. 21.56.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 176-180, color repro.

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