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Provenance

Grand Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen [1826-1914], by 1872;[1] sold April 1930 by his heirs to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The painting is listed by Jordan in Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting Italy, from the II to the XVI Century, German ed., trans. Max Jordan, 6 vols. in 8 parts, Leipzig, 1869-1876: 4, part 2(1872): 593, as being in the grand ducal collection at Meiningen, but it was probably a relatively recent acquisition. In fact, writing in 1909, Voss (in Georg Voss, Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen Bau-und Kunst-Denkmäler Thüringens no. 34, Jena, 1909, 163-164) states that the paintings were purchased for the most part by Grand Duke Georg II "some decades ago." It can be conjectured that the purchases began (or at least became more numerous) after 1866, when he became Herzog of Saxe-Meiningen. There is a red wax seal of the Saxe-Meiningen family on the reverse of the panel. Although the earlier provenance of the panel is unknown, the presence of a Parisian customs stamp on the back could indicate that at one time the painting belonged to a French collector or dealer. Duveen Brothers also sent the painting to Paris twice (see note 2).

[2] The Duveen Brothers prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, says the painting "was disposed of by the Fideikommisse (Trustees) [of the Saxe-Meiningen family] in 1929," and this was the year published in Miklós Boskovits, David Brown et al., Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2003: 379, as the date of the sale to the dealer. Documents in the Duveen Brothers Records, however, indicate representatives of the dealer first saw the painting in November 1929, and did not finalize the purchase until April 1930. See reel 115, box 260, folder 8, Duveen Brothers Records, accession no. 960015, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copies in NGA curatorial files).

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

Bibliography
1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 110, repro., as The Madonna Adoring the Child with an Angel.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 105, no. 18, as Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 130, as Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 22, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 75.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 66, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 194, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:257, II:pl. 174.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 228, 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: 379-382, color repro.
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