Calvary
c. 1470/1480
Painter, German, active c. 1460 - 1490


NGA, West Building, M-035-A
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 129.5 x 199.5 cm (51 x 78 9/16 in.)
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Accession
2001.70.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Léon Tabourier; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20-22 June 1898, no. 193, as Ecole Allemande); (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris). (F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris), in 1913. André J. Seligmann [1898-1945], Paris, by 1938;[1] his heirs; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 27 January 2000, no. 49); purchased jointly by (Bernheimer, Munich), (Otto Nauman, New York), and (Alfred Bader, Milwaukee); purchased 6 June 2001 by NGA.
[1] The painting was confiscated by the Nazis in July 1940 from the collection of André Seligmann and taken to the Germany Embassy in Paris (See Verzeichnis der im Juli 1940 durch die Geheime Feldpolizei in Paris gesicherten und in die Deutsche Botschaft überbrachten Gegenstände aus jüdischen Kunsthandlungen, p. 8-9, National Archives RG260/Ardelia Hall Collection/Box 469/File VII and ERR card no. SEL 545, as Westphalian, second half of the 15th century, National Archives RG260/Property Division/Box 19-20, both copies in NGA curatorial files). It was transferred to the Jeu de Paume from where it was removed by Hermann Goering on 5 November 1940 (OSS Consolidated Report #2, The Goering Collection, 15 September 1945, Attachment 5, List der für die Sammlung des Reichsmarschalls Hermann Goering abgegebenen Kunstgegenstände dated 20 October 1942, no. 236, National Archives RG239/Entry 73/Box 78, copy NGA curatorial files). The records of the Munich Central Collecting Point indicate that the painting was recovered in Berchtesgaden and restituted to France on 30 October 1946 (see Munich property card #6772/1722 as Flemish c. 1480, National Archives RG260/Box 503, and French Receipt for Cultural Objects No. 14A, item no. 121, National Archives RG260/Box 287, copies NGA curatorial files). In 1951 the Office des Biens Privés deposited the painting at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (M.N.R. number 622). The painting remained there until 1999, when it was returned to André Seligmann's two daughters.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1913
Stadtisches Museum Dortmund, 1913.
1934
Tafelbilder des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1934, no. 82, pl. XXXIII, as Low German (Nikolaus van Soest?).
1936
Tentoonstelling van Oude Kunst uit het bezit van den Internationalen Handel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1936, no. 5, as by Rhenish School, attributed to Nikolaus van Soest.
1938
Exposition de Paysages de 1400 à 1900, André Seligmann, Paris, 1938, no. 16, repro., as by Master NVS.
1951
On display with the permanent collection, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1951-1999.
1960
Exposition des 700 tableaux de toutes les écoles antérieurs à 1800 tirés des réserves du département des peintures, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1960, no. 4, as Ecole du Rhein inférieur.
Bibliography
1918
Heise, Carl Georg. "Norddeutsche Malerei: Studien zu ihrer Entwicklungsgeschichte im 15. Jahrhundert von Köln bis Hamburg." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kiel. Leipzig, 1918: 143, under no. 29.
1938
Schöne, Wolfgang. Dieric Bouts und seine Schule. Berlin and Leipzig, 1938: 122.
1954
Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Munich and Berlin, 1954: 53-54, fig. 89.
1962
Adhémar, Hélène. Le Musée national du Louvre, Paris: Les primitifs flamands, Corpus. Brussels,1962: 1:37, no. 7, as Rhenish School.
1967
Stange, Alfred. Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. Munich, 1967: 1:117, no. 373.
1981
Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du musée du Louvre. II: Italie, Espagne, Allemagne, Grand-Bretagne et divers. Paris, 1981: 32, repro.
1999
Associated Press. "France Returns Art Plundered from Jews by Nazis in WWII." Las Vegas Review-Journal (December 15, 1999): 13-A, repro.
2000
Hughes, Robert. "Of 'Psycho' Beds and Other Stellar Sales." Wall Street Journal 235, no. 95 (May 12, 2000): W16, color repro.
Auer, James. "Fifteenth-century Masterpiece May Go Home After Sixty-Year Odyssey." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (April 2, 2000): E1, E7, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 68-69, no. 50, color repro.
2009
Mack, Rosamund E. "When Armor Was Art: Exploring Images of Armor in the National Gallery of Art Collections." Washington, 1990: color repro.
2016
Warner-Johnson, Tim, and Jeremy Howard, eds. Colnaghi: Past, Present and Future: An Anthology. London, 2016: 178-179, color fig. 3; 184-185, color plate 1; 212-213, color repro.
Inscriptions
on the leg of the figure in lower right: N V S
Wikidata ID
Q20173937