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Overview

In this majestic full-length portrait, Marchesa Balbi sits frontally in a high-backed chair, her elegant, deep-green dress trimmed with gold brocade billowing around her. She gazes directly out at the viewer with disarming warmth, given the extraordinary sumptuousness of her costume. With one hand resting on her lap and the other dangling a fan against her dress, she seems relaxed and natural, and the portrait feels unexpectedly personal despite its large scale and imposing grandeur.

Anthony van Dyck had a remarkable ability to understand his patrons' personalities and to reflect them in his portraiture. Although the precise identity of this young and attractive member of the Balbi family is not known, the Balbis were prominent members of the Genoese aristocracy. They commissioned a number of portraits from Van Dyck in the mid-1620s. His relationship with the Balbi family may even have preceded his trip to Italy, as a branch of the family lived in his hometown of Antwerp.

The grand, elegant style of this painting owes much to Van Dyck's one-time mentor Peter Paul Rubens, who had traveled to Genoa in the first decades of the 17th century and executed a number of imposing portraits, such as Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (also in the Gallery's collection). Van Dyck would have seen these portraits after he arrived in Genoa in 1621. Although Van Dyck was inspired by Rubens's portraits, he brought an entirely different expressive character to his own work. In this example, he has softened the architectural qualities of the Marchesa's costume and introduced elements of informality in her pose and in the undulating ripple in the oriental carpet beneath the her feet, further enhancing the portrait's engaging tenderness and candor.

Provenance

Balbi family Genoa, until 1819. Possibly Auguste de Sivry, Venice.[1] Baron John Benjamin Heath [1790-1879, British consul at Genoa]; sold 1836, in London, to Robert Staynor Holford [1802-1892], Dorchester House, London; by inheritance to his son, Sir George Lindsay Holford, K.C.V.O. [1860-1926], Dorchester House; his estate; purchased February 1926 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] purchased February 1926 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Giorgio Balbi (letter of 14 August 1958, in NGA curatorial files) wrote that he knew the painting was in the Palazzo Balbi until 1819. It was not certain when the painting was sold by the family, or by which member of the family.

Michael Jaffé, in Bernhart Schwenk and Bettina-Martine Wolder, eds., Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1992: 65-66, discusses some of the possibilities. Additional provenance information is suggested by Pietro Boccardo ("Ritratti di Genovesi di Rubens e di van Dyck: contesto e identificazioni," in Susan J. Barnes and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds., Van Dyck 350, Hanover and London, 1994: 88, 97 note 41), who notes that Giorgio Balbi, in his article "Fatti e misfatti di un palazzo Balbi," Genova (1958): 29 note 7, indicates that he owned a lithograph by P. Vogt, published by Barozzi in Venice, that depicts Marchesa Balbi. This lithograph identifies the owner of the painting as Auguste de Sivry in Venice ("M.me la marquise Balbi de Genes. L'original appartient à Monsieur Auguste de Sivry à Venise"). Although the date of the lithograph is not known, this information seems to indicate that the painting was sold by the Balbi family to Auguste de Sivry before it entered the collection of Baron Heath.

[2] Provenance prior to Mellon is according to Anthony van Dyck, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990: 144.

[3] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to trust is according to Mellon records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.

Exhibition History
1836
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French Masters, British Institution, London, 1836, no. 103.
1862
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French, and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1862, no. 35.
1870
Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1870, no. 26, as A Portrait.
1887
Exhibition of the Works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1887, no. 77, as The Marchesa Balbi of Genoa.
1900
Exhibition of Works by Van Dyck 1599-1641. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1900, no. 70.
1913
Second National Loan Exhibition: Woman and Child in Art, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1913-1914, no. 100, repro.
1990
Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 24, color repro.
1992
Genova nell'età Barocca, Galleria Nazionale della Liguria (in the Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria), Genoa, 1992, no. 169, repro.
1992
Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1992, no. 11, repro., as Bildnis einer vornehmen Genueserin.
1997
Van Dyck a Genova: Grande pittura e collezionismo, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 1997, no. 36, repro.
Bibliography
n.d.
Law, Ernest. "The Van Dyck Exhibition at the Royal Academy - II." The Magazine of Art (1900): 203, repro. (detail).
1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 9(1842):395, no. 96.
1854
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:200.
1870
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1870: 5, no. 26.
1882
Guiffrey, Jules. Antoine van Dyck - sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1882: 257, no. 365.
1887
Blaikie, J. A. "Van Dyck." The Magazine of Art 10 (1887): 200, 203-204, repro. (detail).
1887
Exhibition of the Works of Sir Anthony van Dyck. Exh. cat. Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1887: 71, no. 77.
1887
Phillips, Claude. "Correspondance d'Angleterre. Expositions rétrospectives de la Royal Academy et de la Grosvenor Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 35 (1887): 258.
1899
Manotti, Mario. "Ritratto di Antonio van Dyck." L'Arte 2 (1899): 254.
1900
Cust, Lionel. Anthony van Dyck. An Historical Study of His Life and Works. London, 1900: 42, 203, no. 77, 220, no. 70, 241, no. 65.
1900
Exhibition of Works by Van Dyck 1599-1641. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1900: 30, no. 70.
1909
Schaeffer, Emil. Van Dyck: des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben. Stuttgart, 1909: 20, 198, repro.
1911
Cust, Lionel. Anthony van Dyck - A Further Study by Lionel Cust.... New York and London, 1911: unpaginated, repro.
1913
Second National Loan Exhibtiion: Woman and Child in Art. Exh. cat. Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1913: 153-154, no. 100, repro.
1931
Glück, Gustav. Van Dyck: des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 13. Revised 2nd ed. New York and Stuttgart, 1931: 196, 540, repro.
1937
Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 37-38.
1941
De Tolnay, Charles. "Flemish Paintings in the National Gallery of Art." Magazine of Art 34 (April 1941): 197, repros.
1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 184, repro.
1941
Held, Julius S. "Masters of Northern Europe, 1430-1660 in the National Gallery." Art News 40, no. 8 (June 1941): [10], repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 204, no. 49.
1941
Reder, Jacob. The Portraits of the Brignole-Sale Family in the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa by Sir Anthony van Dyck. New York, 1941: 10, 14, 16, no. 13, repro.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 41.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 70, repro.
1950
Puyvelde, Leo van. Van Dyck. Brussels and Paris, 1950: 112, 140, 145, 146, repro. (facing 109).
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 94, color repro.
1958
Balbi, G. "Fatti e misfatti di un Palazzo Balbi." Genova 35, no. 8 (1958): 28, 29, repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 310, repro.
1965
Jaffé, Michael. "Van Dyck Portraits in the De Young Museum and Elsewhere." Arts Quarterly 28 (1965): 43.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 46.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:276, color repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 39, repro.
1970
Hubala, Erich. Die Kunst des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 9. Berlin, 1970: 9: 58.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 118, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 263, repro.
1980
Larsen, Erik. L’opera completa di Van Dyck. 2 vols. Classici dell'arte 102-103. Milan, 1980: 1: 106-107, no. 304, 108, repro.
1984
Spike, John T. Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections. (Exh. cat. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; and the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1984-1985) Sarasota, 1984: 214, no. 62, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 263, no. 336, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 143, repro.
1985
Larsen, Erik. Seventeenth Century Flemish Painting. Freren, 1985: 170.
1986
Barnes, Susan J. "Van Dyck in Italy 1621-1628." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1986: 1: 101, 305-306, no. 68; 2; no. 212, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 101, color repro.
1997
Banu, Georges. Le Rideau ou la fêlure du monde, Paris, 1997, p. 29, repro.
2004
Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: II.99
2005
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 53-56, color repro.
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