National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Marriage of the Virgin
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Thomas Blayds, London; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 30-31 March 1849, 1st day, no. 81, as The Birth of St. John; and the companion); Harris. Edward Habich [1818-1901], Kassel, probably from the 1890s;[1] presented 1900 to the Königliche Gemäldegalerie, Kassel;[2] sold around 1920;[3] Rudolf Chillingworth, Nürnberg; (his sale, Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 5 September 1922, no. 111, in same lot as Presentation of Virgin);[4] (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam), by 1930; Desirée Goudstikker von Saher, from 1949.[5] (Piero Tozzi, New York); sold February 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The buyer's name at the Blayds sale appears in an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Getty Library (copy in NGA curatorial files). According to Oscar Eisenmann, Ausgewählte Hanzeichmungen alterer Meilsler aus de Sammlung Edward Habich au Cassel, Lübeck, 1890: n.p., preface, Habich built up his collection in 1880s. At the time of his sale (see Katalog der ausgewählten und reichhaltigen Gemäldesammlung des Reutners herrn Edward Habich zu Cassel, sale catalogue, Haberle, Cologne, 9-10 May 1892), the NGA painting was apparently not yet in his possession.

[2] The date of the donation is given in Katalog der Kniglichen Gemäldegalerie au Cassel, Antiliche Ausgade Berlin, 1913: 63. Girolamo Mancini, Luca Signorelli, Florence, 1903, is the first to cite the painting as belonging to the Kassel Gallery.

[3] Miklós Boskovits, author of the NGA systematic catalogue entry on the painting, could not find any record of the sale, which probably occurred in the years of Germany's economic and political crisis just after World War I.

[4] About Chillingworth and the sale of his collection, see Catalogue de la Collection Chillingworth, Tableaux anciens, XIIIe-XVIIe siècles, 1922: 5 (for the sale held at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne under the direction of Galeries Fischer, Lucerne, and Frederik Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 5 September 1922), and "Versteigerung--Ergebnisse in Luzerne," Kunstchronik Kunstmarkt 33 (1922): 49-50.

[5] See Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, a catalogue for an exhibition shown in Amsterdam and Rotterdam November 1930 and January 1931 (no. 39 in the series of catalogues published by the dealer Jacques Goudstikker). The NGA painting is no. 2585 on a May 1940 inventory of the Goudstikker gallery (copy NGA curatorial files). The Goudstikker firm and most of its contents were sold in July 1940 to Alois Meidl, an agent of Hermann Goering, to whom Miedl subsequently sold some of the inventory. The firm continued to operate throughout World War II under the Miedl's direction (see OSS Reports on Miedl, National Archives, RG239/Entry73/Box 80, copy in NGA curatorial files). According to documents in the Dutch State Archives the NGA painting was not sold to Goering. It was discovered in one of Miedl's buildings in the Netherlands after the war and returned to Goudstikker's widow, Desirée Goudstikker von Saher, on 18 May 1949. (Dutch State Archives ARA, NBI 857, nr. 7, copy in NGA curatorial files. See also letter dated 24 March 1999 from the Inspectie Cultuurbezit of the Netherlands, in NGA curatorial files.)

[6] The bill from Piero Tozzi to the Kress Foundation is dated 9 February 1955 (copy in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1930
Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, Heerengracht 458, Amsterdam; Kunstkrinig, Rotterdam, 1930-1931, no. 69, repro.
1934
Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1934, no. 339.
2012
Luca Signorelli "de ingegno et spirito pelegrino", Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, 2012, no. 36, repro.

Bibliography

1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Colllection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 168, no. 66, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 91, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 122
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 109, repro.
1968
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 96, fig. 231.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 326, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:428-429, II:pl. 307
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 108, no. 83, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 372, repro.
2000
Yeide, Nancy H. "Behind the Lines: Lessons in Nazi-Era Provenance Research." Museum News 79, no. 6 (November/December 2000): 50+, repro.
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: 637-642, color repro.

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