Art Object Page

Inscription

upper center on the Madonna's halo: REGINA CELI LETA[RE ALLELUIA] (O Queen of Heaven, rejoice!)

Provenance

Possibly George Ashburnham, 3rd earl of Ashburnham [1760-1830], Florence and Ashburnham Place, Battle, Sussex; by inheritance to his son, Bertram Ashburnham, 4th earl of Ashburnham [1797-1878], Ashburnham Place;[1] by inheritance to his son, Bertram Ashburnham, 5th earl of Ashburnham [1840-1913], Ashburnham Place; by inheritance to his daughter, Lady Mary Catherine Charlotte Ashburnham [d. 1953], Ashburnham Place; (Robert Langton Douglas, London);[2] sold June 1919 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The collection was formed by the fourth Earl and by his father George, the third Earl of Ashburnham. As there is no record of their collecting activities, it is not clear which of the two acquired the individual items. After the death of the fourth Earl, however, no paintings were added to the collection. See The Ashburnham Collections, Part I. Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings..., Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1953: 3-4.

[2] The Duveen Brothers Records list the painting as "Ashburnham Colln." and "ex L. Douglas" (copy in NGA curatorial files; X Book, Reel 422, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America, New York, 1941: no. 96, specifies that the panel was formerly in the collections of the fifth earl of Ashburnham and his daughter. It is known that Robert Langton Douglas was in touch with the Ashburnham family in order to acquire paintings from their collection; see Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas," Apollo 109 (1979): 452. See also letter from Douglas to Fowles dated 1 May 1941, Duveen Brothers Records, Box 244 (reel 299).

[3] The Duveen Brothers Records indicate that the painting was paid for on 10 June 1919 (copy in NGA curatorial files; see note 2).

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

Associated Names

Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, George
Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham, Bertram
Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, Bertram
Ashburnham, Mary Catherine Charlotte, Lady
Douglas, Robert Langton
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.

Exhibition History

1932: Exhibition of Italian Renaissance Art, Wadsworth Atheneum and Morgan Memorial, Hartford, 1932, no. 14.

Bibliography

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 96, repro.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 130, no. 9.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 152.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 19, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 88.

1966: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 156, fig. 423.

1968: European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 77, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 230, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:329; 2:pl. 239.

1979: Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 448 [166] fig. 3, 452 [170].

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 265, 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: 505-508, color repro.

National Gallery of Art

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