National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Infant John the Baptist
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

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Provenance

Probably in El Greco's studio at the time of his death;[1] probably his son, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, Toledo.[2] Carlos Beistegui, Paris and Venice.[3] Michael Dreicer [1868-1921], New York;[4] bequeathed by him in 1921 to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it was displayed 1922-1933;[5] returned 1933 to Dreicer's heirs, who had challenged his will.[6] private collection, London.[7] private collector, New York, by whom consigned to (Paul Drey Gallery, New York), in the 1940's.[8] Baroness de Kerchove; sold or consigned 24 February 1948 to (French & Co., New York);[9] sold 7 December 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[10] gift 1959 to NGA.

[1] This seems probable because the painting appears to have been owned by the artist's son in 1621 (see note 2). Because the inventory of El Greco's estate in 1614 does not include measurements, it is difficult to identify the National Gallery painting with a specific reference in this document. However, if the painting was given the same title in 1614 as in 1621, it can probably be identified as "Una imagen, con el niño dormido y S. Joseph y Santa ana y S. Jn bautista" ("An image with the sleeping child and Saint Joseph and Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist"); Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo (Madrid, 1910): 192. However, as Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School (Princeton, 1962) 2: 59, suggests, the National Gallery painting might have been described as "Una imagen con el Niño y s. Joseph y S. Ana no acabada ("An unfinished painting with the Child and Saint Joseph and Saint Anne"). See Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo (Madrid, 1910): 193.

[2] No. 16 in the inventory made of his possessions in 1621 reads: "Una ymagen con su niño dormido santa ana y san Joseph y San Ju bautista, y quadro dorado, tiene de ancho casi media bara y de alto dos terzias" ("An image [of the Virgin] with the Child sleeping, Saint Anne and Saint Joseph and Saint John the Baptist, and a gilded frame, measures in width almost half a vara and in height almost two-thirds"). Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, "De la vida del Greco," Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 3 (1927): 288. Because a vara (a traditional Spanish measurement) equals approximately 84 cm, no. 16 of the inventory would have been 42 cm in width and 56 cm in height. These figures are close to the measurements of the NGA painting. El Greco's other interpretations of the subject are significately larger. Compare Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School (Princeton, 1962) 2: 58, 59, nos. 85, 87. The copies of El Greco's other paintings of the subject are significately larger than the NGA painting. Compare Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School (Princeton, 1962) 2: 189-190, nos. X-105 through X-109.

[3] Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School (Princeton, 1962): 2: 60, no. 88. According to a letter from Mrs. Wethey dated 2 August 1988, in NGA curatorial files, Beistegui was "a fabulously rich Argentinian of Spanish descent...who lived for many years in Europe" and once owned the eighteenth-century Palazzo Labia in Venice.

[4] Michael Dreicer, Collection of Michael Dreicer (New York, no date): 4, 15. Dreicer preferred to collect exclusively small-scale paintings like the present example. See Macdonald Parish-Watson, "Art and the Businessman: A Note on the Michael Dreicer Collection," Arts and Decoration 15 (1921): 249-295, 319.

[5] Harry B. Wehle, "The Michael Dreicer Colletion," Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 17 (1922): 100, 103; Bryson Burroughs, Catalogue of Paintings: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1931), 145: no. G791-2.

[6] Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford, 1977): 202, no. 1527.

[7] M. Legendre and A. Hartmann, Domenikos Theotokopoulos Called El Greco (Paris, 1937):144.

[8] Robert Carlucci of the Paul Drey Gallery, letter of 4 August 1988, NGA curatorial files, states that the painting was owned during the early 1940's by a European collector resident in New York, who still owned it in 1947, and who consigned it to the Paul Drey Gallery "for some period of time." This individual and the "private collector, London" recorded as the owner in Legendre and Hartmann (see n. 7), may be the same as the Baroness de Kerchove, about whom little is known.

[9] French & Co. stock records at the Getty Research Institute, Los Anglese, stock no. 79690A. A sizeable group of paintings from the Baroness was recorded in the French & Co. stockbooks in 1948. French & Co. sent the painting out to the Paul Drey Gallery in May 1948; no date of return is recorded.

[10] French & Co. stock records at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

Exhibition History

1941
Spanish Painting, The Toledo [Ohio] Museum of Art, 1941, no. 43.
1950
The Samuel H. Kress Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1950, no. 17.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1956, no. 35.
1982
El Greco of Toledo, The Toledo [Ohio] Museum of Art; Prado, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1982-1983, 116, 234, 239, no. 26, pl. 45.
1990
El Greco of Crete: Exhibition on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of his birth, Iraklion, Crete, Greece, 1990, no. 16, 234, color repro. 235, 370-371.
1996
Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 38-39, color repro.
1999
Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 80, repro.

Bibliography

1922
Wehle, Harry B. "The Michael Dreicer Collection." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 17 (1922): 103-106.
1926
Mayer, August L. Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco. Munich, 1926: 8, no. 31, pl. 32.
1931
Burroughs, Bryson. Catalogue of Paintings: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1931: 145, no. G791-2.
1931
Mayer, August L. El Greco. Berlin, 1931: 83.
1937
Legendre, Maurice, and Alfred Hartmann. Domenikos Theotokopoulos Called El Greco. Paris, 1937: 144, repro.
1941
Gudiol y Ricart, José. "Span of Spanish Painting: 1150-1828." Art News 40 (1 April, 1941): 17.
1950
Camón Aznar, José. Dominico Greco. 2 vols. Madrid, 1950: 1:581; 2:1370, no. 242 (also 1970 rev. ed., 1:588, fig. 477; 2:1352, no. 254).
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 270, repro., as The Holy Family.
1959
Richardson, E. P., ed. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1959." The Art Quarterly 22, no. 3 (Autumn 1959): 277.
1962
Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. 2 vols. Princeton, 1962: 1:46, fig. 102; 2:59-60, no. 88 (also Spanish ed. Madrid, 1967: 1:62-63, pl. 87; 2:74-75, no. 88).
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 63, as The Holy Family.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 54, repro., as The Holy Family.
1969
Manzini, Gianna, and Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa del Greco. Milan, 1969: no. 99b.
1972
Cossío, Manuel B. El Greco. Edited by Natalia Cossío de Jiménez. Barcelona, 1972: 358, no. 30.
1973
Gudiol y Ricart, José. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco. Translated by Kenneth Lyons. New York, 1973: 197, 349, no. 147, color fig. 175 (also 1983 ed.: 197, 349, no. 147, color fig. 175).
1974
Harris Frankfort, Enriqueta. "El Greco's Holy Family with the Child ...: An Image of Silence ...." In Hortus Imaginum, Essays in Western Art. Edited by R. Enggass and M. Stockard. Lawrence, Kansas, 1974: 103-111, fig. 69.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 164, repro., as The Holy Family.
1975
Lafuente Ferrari, Enrique, and José Manuel Pita Andrade. El Greco: The Expressionism of His Final Years. Translated by Robert E. Wolf. New York, 1975: 156, no. 26.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 201-220, fig. 196, attributed to the studio of El Greco.
1982
Garrido, María del Carmen, and José María Cabrera. "Estudio técnico comparativo de dos Sagradas Familias del Greco." Boletín del Museo del Prado 3 (1982): 98.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 237, no. 305, color repro., as The Holy Family.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 189, repro.
1986
McKim-Smith, Gridley, María del Carmen Garrido, and Sarah L. Fisher. "A Note on Reading El Greco's Revisions: A Group of Paintings of the Holy Family." Studies in the History of Art 18 (1986): 67-77, figs. 1, 5.
1990
Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 72-77, color repro. 75.
1990
El Greco of Crete: Exhibition on the Occasion of the 450th Anniversary of his Birth. Exh. cat. Iraklion, 1990: 234, 370-371, color repro. 235.
2000
Kirsh, Andrea, and Levenson, Rustin S. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies, vol. 1. New Haven, 2000: 197-199, fig. 211-216.

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