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A light-skinned woman wearing a lapis-blue dress sits on a throne, holding a nearly naked pale-skinned baby in this vertical painting. The woman’s long-sleeved dress falls in lively folds as it pools around her legs and feet. Curling tendrils frame her face while the rest of her brown hair is pulled back beneath a cloth headdress. Her body is angled to our left and she looks off just over our left shoulder. She supports the baby who straddles the right arm of the chair and balances on the toes of his right foot. With her right hand, the woman holds a piece of fruit, perhaps a small apple, up by the baby’s mouth. The throne sits low to the ground and is ornately carved and gilded with scrolling arms and intricate tracery up the back around the crimson-red, upholstered center. They sit in a room with a patterned tile floor, thick, brown stone walls, and a window with a view onto other buildings and people in the upper left corner. Three more apples rest on ledges near the window. A thick book lies open in the bottom right corner.

Jan Gossaert

Madonna and Child, c. 1532

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 41-A

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 34.4 x 24.8 cm (13 9/16 x 9 3/4 in.)

framed: 51.4 x 41.9 cm (20 1/4 x 16 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Grace Vogel Aldworth in memory of her grandparents Ralph and Mary Booth

Accession Number

1981.87.1

Artists / Makers

Jan Gossaert (artist) Netherlandish, c. 1478 - 1532

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

Falsely inscribed lower right between the hem of the Virgin's robe and the book: AD (in ligature)

Provenance

Prince Nikolai Viktorovich Gagarin [1873-1925], Moscow, by 1892.[1] Prince Paul Trubetskoi, Paris, until c. 1921-1922.[2] (Van Diemen & Co., The Hague); sold August 1922 to Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d. 1951] Booth, Grosse Point, Michigan; by descent 1949 to their daughter and her husband, William and Virginia Vogel, Milwaukee; their daughter, Grace Vogel Aldworth [d. 2002] Chicago, by 1977;[3] gift 1981 to NGA.

[1] In this year the picture was included in a charity exhibition in Moscow of pictures from private collections, according to an undated letter (reply dated 7 February 1992) from Konstantin Akinsha, Moscow correspondent for Art News magazine, in NGA curatorial files.

[2] The Akinsha letter cited in note 1 states that the painting seems to have been imported to the U.S. from Paris in 1921-1922; however, it must have been back in Europe by 1922, when Ralph and Mary Booth purchased it from Van Deimen.

[3] Information on the provenance was provided by Grace Vogel Aldworth and Mrs. William Vogel in their letter of 20 December 1983 (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Aldworth, Edward K., Mrs.
Booth, Ralph Harman and Mary Batterman
Gagarin, Nikolai Viktorovich, Prince
Galerie van Diemen & Co.
Trubetskoi, Paul, Prince
Vogel, William and Virginia

Exhibition History

1892: Album of Charity Exhibition of Pictures from Private Collections, Moscow, 1892, no. 29.

1923: Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1923, no cat.

1929: Flemish Primitives, F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York, 1929, no. 80.

1930: Trésor de l'art flamand du Moyen Age au XVIIIme siècle, Antwerp, 1930, no. 183.

1965: Jean Gossaert dit Mabuse, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 1965, no. 42.

1998: A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 23, fig. 17.

2010: Jan Gossaert's Renaissance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, London, 2010-2011, no. 21, repro. (not in London catalogue).

Technical Summary

The painting is in very good condition except for the upraised hand of the Madonna, which is entirely repainted. There are small losses in the background and small losses in the shoulder and abdomen of the Christ Child. Infrared photography and infrared reflectography reveal underdrawing in the face and legs of the Infant and the face of the Madonna. Only a small portion of the Madonna's drapery at the extreme left shows underdrawing. On the reverse is the paper sticker from the Kleinberger Galleries exhibition of 1929 and at the lower left a partially destroyed red resinous seal, which may be read as / VAN DIEMEN / & CO. LA HAYE. At the upper right is a red resinous seal with an unidentified heraldic design.

Bibliography

1892: Album of Charity Exhibition of Pictures from Private Collections. [In Russian] Exh. cat. Moscow, 1892: no. 29.

1923: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 4 (1923): 51.

1924: Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols.,1924-1937. Berlin, 1930: 8:57-58, no. 28, pl. 26. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1972: 8:37, 94, no. 28, pl. 30.)

1961: Osten, Gert von der. "Studien zu Jan Gossaert." De Artibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky. 2 vols. New York, 1961: 455.

1968: Herzog, Sadja. "Jan Gossaert called Mabuse (ca. 1478-1532): A Study of his Chronology with a Catalogue of his Works." Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1968: 156-157, 162, 318-319, no. 56, pl. 68.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 158, no. 173, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 182, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 107-109, repro. 108.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 125, no. 95, color repro.

2013: Acres, Alfred. Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy. London and Turnhout, 2013: 118, fig. 87, color fig. 72.