National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Marchesa Balbi
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Provenance

Balbi family Genoa, until 1819. Possibly Auguste de Sivry, Venice.[1] Baron John Benjamin Heath [1790-1879, British consul at Genoa]; sold 1836, in London, to Robert Staynor Holford [1802-1892], Dorchester House, London; by inheritance to his son, Sir George Lindsay Holford, K.C.V.O. [1860-1926], Dorchester House; his estate; purchased February 1926 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] purchased February 1926 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Giorgio Balbi (letter of 14 August 1958, in NGA curatorial files) wrote that he knew the painting was in the Palazzo Balbi until 1819. It was not certain when the painting was sold by the family, or by which member of the family. Michael Jaffé, in Bernhart Schwenk and Bettina-Martine Wolder, eds., Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1992: 65-66, discusses some of the possibilities. Additional provenance information is suggested by Pietro Boccardo ("Ritratti di Genovesi di Rubens e di van Dyck: contesto e identificazioni," in Susan J. Barnes and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds., Van Dyck 350, Hanover and London, 1994: 88, 97 note 41), who notes that Giorgio Balbi, in his article "Fatti e misfatti di un palazzo Balbi," Genova (1958): 29 note 7, indicates that he owned a lithograph by P. Vogt, published by Barozzi in Venice, that depicts Marchesa Balbi. This lithograph identifies the owner of the painting as Auguste de Sivry in Venice ("M.me la marquise Balbi de Genes. L'original appartient à Monsieur Auguste de Sivry à Venise"). Although the date of the lithograph is not known, this information seems to indicate that the painting was sold by the Balbi family to Auguste de Sivry before it entered the collection of Baron Heath.

[2] Provenance prior to Mellon is according to Anthony van Dyck, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990: 144.

[3] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to trust is according to Mellon records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.

Exhibition History

1836
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French Masters, British Institution, London, 1836, no. 103.
1862
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French, and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1862, no. 35.
1870
Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1870, no. 26, as A Portrait.
1887
Exhibition of the Works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1887, no. 77, as The Marchesa Balbi of Genoa.
1900
Exhibition of Works by Van Dyck 1599-1641. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1900, no. 70.
1913
Second National Loan Exhibition: Woman and Child in Art, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1913-1914, no. 100, repro.
1990
Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 24, color repro.
1992
Genova nell'età Barocca, Galleria Nazionale della Liguria (in the Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria), Genoa, 1992, no. 169, repro.
1992
Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1992, no. 11, repro., as Bildnis einer vornehmen Genueserin.
1997
Van Dyck a Genova: Grande pittura e collezionismo, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997, no. 36, repro.

Bibliography

1941
Duveen 1941, fig. 184.
1941
Held, Julius S. "Masters of Nothern Europe in the National Gallery." ArtNews 40, no. 8 (June, 1941): [10], repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 204.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 41.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 70, repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 94, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 310, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 46
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:276, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 39, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 118, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 263, no. 336, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 143, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 101, color repro.
1997
Banu, Georges. Le Rideau ou la fêlure du monde, Paris, 1997, p. 29, repro.
2004
Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: II.99
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: 53-56, color repro.

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