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Provenance

(M.F. Steinmeyer, Lucerne), by 1929.[1] Edward Hutton [1874-1969], London. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[2] sold October 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] According to Raimond van Marle, "Quadri senesi sconosciuti," La Diana 4 (1929): 309-310. The painting is also listed as belonging to the same owner by Bernard Berenson, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance, Oxford,1932 reprint: 512, and Italian ed. reprint, trans. Emilio Cecchi, Milan, 1936: 440. In a letter of 28 February 1951 to John Walker (in NGA curatorial files), Edward Forbes writes that he thought the NGA painting was the same as one he saw "for sale in Steinmeyer's Gallery in Lucerne in 1933 or 1935."

[2] Hutton's and Contini-Bonacossi's ownership is stated by John Pope-Hennessy, Sassetta, London, 1939: 91 n. 31.

[3] The bill of sale for eleven paintings, including NGA 1939.1.246, is dated 17 October 1936 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1383.

Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 178, no. 357, as Madonna and Child..
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 184.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 38, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 120.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 140-141, fig. 383.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 108, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 318, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:414-415; 2:pl. 295, 230B.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 367, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 155, color repro.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 628-631, color repro.
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