Provenance

Probably commissioned by the Piccolomini family, Siena. Possibly William Blundell Spence [1815-1900], Florence, by 1858-1859;[1] possibly Rev. Walter Davenport Bromley [1787-1862], Wooton Hall; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 12-13 June 1863, no. 50); Francis Baring, 3rd baron Ashburton [1800-1868], London.[2] Bertram Ashburnham, 4th earl of Ashburnham [1797-1878], Ashburnham Place, Battle, Sussex. William Compton, 4th marquess of Northampton [1818-1897], Castle Ashby, near Northampton.[3] Edouard Kann, Paris.[4] (Dowdeswell & Dowdeswell, London), before 1917.[5] Morland Agnew [1855-1931], London, August 1925.[6] Possibly (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York).[7] (Scott & Fowles, New York), by March 1931 until at least 1943;[8] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London); sold 18 May 1945 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[9] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The identification of NGA 1952.5.2 with the "small picture of Joseph, by Signorelli," quoted by Spence in his correspondence with Thomas Gambier Parry in 1858-1859, was suggested cautiously by John Fleming ("Art Dealing in the Risorgimento II," The Burlington Magazine CXXI, no. 918 [August 1979]: 505, note 74; and "Art Dealing in the Risorgimento III," The Burlington Magazine CXXI, no. 918 [September 1979]: 580).
[2] A painting described as "a figure of Joseph, with subjects from his life in the background," attributed again to Signorelli in the sale catalogue of the Davenport Bromley collection, is probably the one formerly with Spence and possibly the one now in the National Gallery. It was acquired during the sale by Lord Ashburton (see The Art Journal, New Series, 2 [1 August 1863]: 160), whose purchases are noted with the phrase "Bath House," his London residence, in an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Knoedler fiche (copy in NGA curatorial files).
[3] The Knoedler bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files) lists the former collections for the painting as "The late Morland Agnew, Esq., London. Edward Kann, Paris. Lord Northampton. Earl of Ashburnham." The provenance given here assumes this list begins with the most recent owner (Agnew), and thus places the earl of Ashburnham as the earlier owner. This conforms with what is known of the collecting of the Earls of Ashburnham, which ceased with the death of the fourth Earl in 1878 (The Ashburnham Collections. Part I. Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings..., Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1953: 3-4). Fern Rusk Shapley points out (Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:313-314, note 3), that although the 1934 catalogue of the Chicago exhibition identifies the NGA painting with no. 94 of the Earl of Ashburnham's 13 July 1901 sale at Christie's in London, this lot is described as "Tobit and the Angel--arched top, on panel--41 x 22 1/2 in. ... a strange interpretation of the subject, and [indicated by the height measurement] that...the painted pedestal for the figure was still part of the panel."
[4] Shapley 1979, 1:313, lists the painting as being sold from Kann's collection in 1895. The catalogues of the 1895 Kann sales (Paris, G.P. Chevalier, 7 June; Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 8 June) do not contain anything like NGA 1952.5.2.
[5] Giacomo de Nicola ("Notes on the Museo Nazionale of Florence-V. Fragments of Two Series of Renaissance Representations of Greek and Roman Heroes," The Burlington Magazine XXXI [December 1917]: 224-228) describes "a picture that was in the possession of the Dowdeswell brothers, only known to me through a good photograph kindly shown to me by Mr. Berenson. This painting ought also to be added to the series. Everything is in agreement except that the lowest part of the pedestal, on which the hero stands, no longer appears, having evidently been cut off by a reduction of the panel at the bottom." The author also speculates that this painting might be one of two paintings in the series that were on the Florence art market about 1890, information that was recorded in the 1893 catalogue of an exhibition of the work of Luca Signorelli and his school, held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London.
[6] The date comes from a handwritten note on the back of a photograph of the painting belonging to the archives of the Biblioteca Berenson, Florence. The full sequence of names, in the order they are written, is: Edouard Kann, Paris; Lord Northampton; Lord Ashburnham; Agnew, August 1925; Scott & Fowles, March 1931; Duveen Brothers.
[7] See note 6. Edward Duveen sent a photograph of the painting to Bernard Berenson on 21 March 1931, apparently asking for his opinion (the full letter has yet to be located in the Duveen Records, so it is not clear if Duveen Brothers had the painting for sale or simply had information about it). Mrs. Berenson replied for her husband in a letter of 26 March 1931: "The photo which came with your letter of the 21st is reproduced by B.B. as one of his "Homeless Pictures", in the April Dedalo and the April International Studio of Art. He ascribes it to the 'Griselda Master' (Story of Griselda in the National Gallery) a sincere follower of Signorelli. You will find all he knows about it in this article" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 248, Folder 15, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).
[8] See note 6. Scott & Fowles are given as owners of the painting in publications from 1933 until 1943, and are identified in the catalogues of the 1934 and 1936 exhibitions in Chicago and Cleveland, respectively. The painting was lent "anonymously" to the World's Fair in 1939, but a label from that exhibition on the back of the painting identifies the owner as Stevenson Scott of New York.
[9] This is the date of the Knoedler bill of sale to the Kress Foundation (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1172.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

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Wikidata ID

Q20174483