Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
- Artist
- Orazio Gentileschi
- Artist Dates
- 1563-1639
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
- Date
- c. 1620
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 82.5 x 73 cm (32-1/8 x 28-3/4 in)
- K Number
- K1949
- Repository
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Accession Number
- 61.74
- Notes
Provenance
(Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 22 June 1951, no. 88 as Artemisia Gentileschi); (J. Tooth). (David Koetser Gallery); sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 20 February 1953; gift 1961 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, no. 61.74.
Catalogue Entry
Orazio Gentileschi
Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
K1949
Houston. Tex., Museum of Fine Arts (61-73). since 1953.(1) Canvas. 31 3/8 x 28 1/4 in. (79.7 x 71.8 cm.). Very good condition except that fingers of left hand were missing and have been restored. Once attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi,(2) K1949 is now accepted as by Orazio.(3) The gentle expression, grace, and elegance of the figure are typical of Orazio, as displayed in such a painting as the Lute Player in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. K1949 may well have been painted about the same time as the Lute Player, which is preferably assigned to the second – but sometimes third – decade of the century. The interpretation of the subject of K1949 is indicated by the hieroglyphs that decorate the stone slab on which the young woman leans and by the scroll in her hand. A more idealized Sibyl by Orazio, also in bust length, but holding her slab, or tablet, again decorated with hieroglyphs, is in the Hampton Court Collection.(4) Provenance: English Private Collection (sold, Christie's, London, June 22, 1951, no. 88, as Artemisia Gentileschi; bought by J. Tooth). David M. Koetser's, New York. Kress acquisition, 1953 –exhibited, after acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 'Art Treasures for America,' National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 1961-Feb. 4, 1962, no. 33, as Orazio; 'Baroque Painting,' Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., and elsewhere, circulated by American Federation of Arts, 1968-69, no. 4 of catalogue, as Orazio.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1953, no. 18, as Orazio Gentileschi. (2) See Provenance. (3) See Suida, in note 1, above. A. Moir (The Italian Followers of Caravaggio, vol. I, 1967, p. 75 n. 22) accepts the attribution to Orazio, suggesting a date about 1620; he thinks K1949 is perhaps a fragment of a large painting, but this does not seem likely to me. R. E. Spear (Caravaggio and His Followers, 1971, p. 103) thinks K1949 may belong to Orazio's last years in Rome. (4) Reproduced by C. Sterling, in Burlington Magazine, vol. c, 1958, p. 115, fig. 5. This painting presumably belongs to Orazio's English period, and it is in this period, following 1626, that W. Bissell (in Art Quarterly, vol. XXXIV, 1971, p. 293) suggests placing K1949.