Art Object Page

Inscription

upper center on the Madonna's halo: AVE.GRATIA PLENA.DO[MINVS TECVM] (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; from Luke 1:28)

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 [1864-1951], London);[2] sold August 1919 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] sold 1922 to Clarence H. Mackay [1874-1938], Roslyn, New York, until c. 1930;[4] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[5] sold 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1939 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 Langton Douglas"; (copy in NGA curatorial files; X Book, Reel 422, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). 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 11 August 1919 (see note 2).

[4] Mackay's collection was built up by Duveen Brothers. When he had financial difficulties during the Depression, starting around 1930, the same firm assisted him in selling the pictures in his collection; see Edward Fowles, Memories of the Duveen Brothers, London, 1976: 157.

[5] At the time of the Detroit exhibition of 1933, the painting was again with Duveen Brothers.

[6] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:330.

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.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Mackay, Clarence H.

Exhibition History

1924: Loan Exhibition of Important Early Italian Paintings in the Possession of Notable American Collectors, Duveen Brothers, New York, 1924, no. 21 (no. 30 in illustrated 1926 verion of catalogue).

1933: The Sixteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters. Italian Paintings of the XIV to XVI Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1933, no. 60.

1988: Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 48, repro., as Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Catherine of Alexandria and Two Angels (cat. by K. Christiansen, L.B. Kanter and C.B.Strehlke).

Bibliography

1926: Valentiner, W.R. The Clarence H. Mackay Collection. New York, 1926: 4, no. 5, repro.

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 94, repro.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 131, no. 408.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 247, repro. 152.

1944: Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 22, repro.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 48, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 83, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 89.

1968: European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 78, 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. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:329-230, II:pl. 238.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 266, 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: 509-512, color repro.

National Gallery of Art

Inscription

Provenance

Associated Names

Exhibition History

Bibliography

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