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  • Provenance
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Provenance

Probably Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; sold to Sir Frederick Cook, 1st bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, and bought back by Robinson; sold 1892 to Martine-Marie-Pol de Behague, comtesse de Béarn [1869 or 1870-1939], Paris;[1] sold December 1917 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[2] sold March 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] A note by Ellis Waterhouse (in NGA curatorial files), dated 22 July 1980, states that notebooks of Sir J.C. Robinson in the Department of Western Art Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, seem to show that the painting was bought or bought back by him from Sir Frederick Cook for 400 Pounds and sold as Antonello in 1892 to the comtesse de Béarn for 1600 Pounds. As Francis Cook was still alive and actively collecting at this time, Waterhouse almost certainly meant to indicate Francis and not Frederick; in any case, Frederick appears to have had little interest in art collecting.

[2] According to the X Book, Reel 422, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files).

[3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of twenty-four paintings, including "A Portrait of a Man by Giovanni Bellini," is dated 9 March 1937; the provenance is given as "Comtesse de Béarn Collection" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records).

Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 21-22, no. 448, as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 248, repro. 70, as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 138, repro., as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136, as Portrait of a Senator.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 124, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.
1968
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 49-50, fig. 117.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 368, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:536-537, II:pl. 373, as Portrait of a Senator.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 426, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.
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: 679-682, color repro.
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