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Provenance

Edward Solly [1776-1844], Berlin, by 1819;[1] sold 1821 to the Königliche Museen (later Kaiser-Friedrich Museum), Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (until 1840 as no. I.165, afterward as no. 58); deaccessioned and sold 1937 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold June 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] It does not appear that the painting was ever in London, as is sometimes affirmed. In fact, it was not part of Edward Solly's second collection, put together after his move to London in 1821. His first collection was formed in Berlin, probably beginning in 1813 (see Maria Dietl, "The Picture Gallery of Berlin: The Formation of the Solly Collection," Giovanni Morelli e la cultura dei conoscitori. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Bergamo 1987, Bergamo, 1993: 49-59). Onto the back of the painting has been transferred an old label with the Prussian eagle, the letters T.N., and the number 27. This mark, whose precise meaning has not yet been clarified, is often seen on the labels attached to the backs of paintings coming from the Solly collection, and probably originated at the time of the preparation of the "Vorläufiges Verzeichnis" of 1819; see Wilhelm H. Köhler, "Die Sammlung Solly, Merkmale und Kennzeichen ihrer Bilder," in Miklós Boskovits, Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Katalog der Gemälde. Frühe italienische Malerei, Berlin, 1987: 185-186.

[2] No. 58 is cited for the last time in a publication of the Berlin museum in Irene Kunze, Staatliche Museen in Berlin. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. Führer durch die Gemäldegalerie. Die italienischen Meister, Berlin, 1934: 17. By the mid-1930s the Berlin museum evidently wished to acquire some German paintings that were no longer in that country. This desire was referenced in a letter written by Duveen Brothers on 26 February 1937 to the director of the paintings department at the Berlin museum, offering to him the Portrait of a Man with Lute by Hans Holbein (now no. 2154 in Berlin, then “said to be …of Jean de Dinteville,” from Henry Goldman’s collection in New York) in exchange for two paintings in Berlin, this painting and another NGA painting, Duccio's The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekial (NGA 1937.1.8). (Copy of the letter and an office memo in NGA curatorial files; Reel 48, Box 139, Folder 4 and Reel 189, Box 334, Folder 2, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.) The date of de-accession is also given by Robert Oertel, Fra Filippo Lippi, Vienna, 1942: 75.

[3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of eight paintings, including NGA 1939.1.290, is dated 21 June 1938; the provenance is given as "The Kaiser Friedrich Museum" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1330.

Exhibition History

2013
Da Donatello a Lippi: Officina pratese, Museo Civico di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, 2013-2014, no. 4.4, repro.

Bibliography

1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 44, repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 107-108, no. 401.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 247, repro. 131.
1944
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 33, repro.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 35, repro.
1946
Favorite Paintings from the National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.. New York, 1946: color frontispiece, 7-9.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 18, color repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 56, repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 299, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 76.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:26, color repro.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 106-107, fig. 289.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 66, repro.
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 79.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 196, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:262-263; 2:pl. 178.
1979
Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 19, pl. 4.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 87, no. 45, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 229, 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: 401-405, color repro.
2013
Langhanke, Birgit. Die Madonnenreliefs im Werk von Antonio Rossellino. Ph.D. diss. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 2013: 309.

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