Saint Jerome with Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium, c. 1640/1650

Provenance

Frank Hall Standish [1799-1840], Seville;[1] bequeathed to King Louis Philippe of France [1773-1850]; by descent to his heirs; (sale, Catalogue des tableaux formant la célèbre collection Standish léguée à S.M. feu le roi Louis Philippe par Mr. Frank Hall Standish, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 27-28 May 1853, no. 112, as "Légende de Saint Dominique"); to Alphonse Oudry (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16-17 April 1869, no. 157, as "Evêque instruisant deux religieuses");[2] (Oudry sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 April 1876, no. 60, as "Evêque instruisant deux saintes religieuses"). Maximo Scioletti [d. 1951], Paris; purchased 1951 by (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); owned jointly with (Pinakos [Rudolf Heinemann], New York); sold February 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift to NGA 1952.

Exhibition History

1842

Galerie Espagnole du Musée Royal du Louvre, Paris, 1842-1848.

1987

Zurbarán, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Grand Palais, Paris, 1987-1988, 280-282, no. 57, repro. 281.

2015

Zurbarán: Master of Details, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, 2015-2016, no. 50, repro.

Technical Summary

The picture is on a single piece of coarse, plain-weave fabric, lined with a modern plain-weave linen. In the treatment of 1951, the canvas additions squaring off the curved top were removed and the picture was returned to its original shape. A gray ground is visible through the paint film. There are numerous changes in the outer contours of figures and objects. The left side of Saint Jerome's mozzetta has been reduced by 2.5 cm; the right contour of the portion of his habit that falls beside the chair is moved 3 cm to the left; the head coverings of the female saints have a white underlayer at the outer perimeter and show many slight alterations at the bottom edges, including thin added layers of black which change the shape of the shoulder openings. There are losses through the paint and ground at various locations, especially across the knees of Saint Eustochium; in the right shoulder and elbow of the mozzetta; in the lower portion of Saint Paula's and Saint Jerome's habits; and under Saint Jerome's chair. The glazes modifying the folds of the habits are lightly abraded. The perimeters are heavily retouched, especially the left edge, which has a zone of retouch approximately 3 cm wide. The glazing of the architectural features behind Saint Jerome is badly abraded and rather broadly reglazed. Other small flake losses can be seen throughout, the result of the badly cupped paint film. A rather thick, glossy synthetic resin varnish is applied over the picture surface.

Bibliography

1953

Soria, Martin S. The Paintings of Zurbarán. London, 1953: 182, no. 198, color repro. opp. 6.

1954

López-Rey, José. "The Real Zurbarán?" Review of The Paintings of Zurbarán by Martin S. Soria. In Art News (May, 1954): 53.

1956

Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 208, no. 83, repro., as by Francisco de Zurbarán.

1959

Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 271, repro., as by Francisco de Zurbarán.

1960

Guinard, Paul. Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique. Paris, 1960: 115, 267, no. 485, repro.

1961

Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 142, color repro. pl. 134.

1962

Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art.. New York, 1962: 86, color repro., as by Francisco de Zurbarán.

1963

Torres Martín, Ramón. Zurbarán, el pintor gótico del siglo XVII. Seville, 1963: 231, no. 252.

1963

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 309, repro.

1965

Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 141, as by Zurbarán.

1966

Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:208, color repro., as by Zurbarán.

1968

National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 128, repro., as by Zurbarán.

1973

Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 89.

1973

Gregori, Mina, and Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa di Zurbarán. Milan, 1973: no. 310, color pl. 48.

1975

European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 380, repro.

1977

Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 216-217, fig. 213, color repro.

1977

Gudiol y Ricart, José, and Julián Gállego. Zurbarán 1598-1664. London, 1977: 105, no. 324, fig. 314.

1977

Young, Eric. Review of European Paintings in the Toledo Museum of Art. In The Connoisseur 196 (1977): 69.

1977

Young, Eric. Review of Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools excluding Italian by Colin Eisler. In Connoisseur 195, no. 784 (June 1977): 154.

1979

Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 63, pl. 46.

1984

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 247, no. 312, color repro.

1985

European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 444, repro.

1990

Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 137-138, color repro. 139.

1996

Donahue, M. Patricia. Nursing, The Finest Art: An Illustrated History. St Louis, 1996: 88, color repro.

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