Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book
Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book
- Artist
- Vittore Carpaccio
- Artist Dates
- c. 1460-1525/1526
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book
- Date
- 1500-05
- Medium
- oil on lindenwood panel
- Dimensions
- 40.6 x 30.4 cm (16 x 12 in)
- K Number
- K1585
- Repository
- Denver Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1961.168
- Notes
Provenance
Private collection, Milan. Michel Van Gelder, Château Zeecrabbe, Uccle, Belgium. [1] (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin), from at least 1928 until 1931. [2] (Julius Böhler, Munich) in 1931. [3] Possibly (Leo Blumenreich, Berlin). [4] Captain Norman Robert Colville [1893-1974], London; (his sale, Christie's, London, 24 February 1939, no. 99, withdrawn). [5] (Matthiesen, London) in 1939. Mrs. Sterner, US. [6] (Paul Drey, New York), by 1942; [7] sold 1948 to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955]; gift 1961 to the Denver Art Museum, no. 1961.168 (on loan from the Kress Foundation, 1954–61). [1] Not described in Louis Dumont-Wilden, La collection Michel van Gelder : au château Zeecrabbe, a Uccle, Brussels, 1911. [2] Illustrated and decribed as with Matthiesen in Pantheon, October 1928 p. 510 and 520; mentioned also in Pantheon, February 1931 p. 69, repro frontispiece. [3] Böhler per annotated photo mount in Will Library, London. [4] Blumenreich per annotated photo mount in Will Library, London. [5] Withdrawn from sale and returned to owner, per Christie's Archives, London. [6] Matthiesen and Sterner per annotated photo mounts in Will Library, London. The latter may refer to the Marie Sterner Gallery in New York. [7] Lent by Drey to an exhibition in Baltimore in 1942.
Catalogue Entry
Vittore Carpaccio
Portrait of a Woman Holding a Book
K1585
Denver, Colo., Denver Art Museum (E-IT-I8-XVI-939), since 1954.(1) Wood. 16 x 11 7/8 in. (40.6 x 30.2 cm.). Slightly abraded; small restorations; partially cleaned 1949. There seems to be no independent portrait signed by Carpaccio or conclusively documented as his. Among those attributed to him, K1585 is one of the most widely accepted.(2) Because the sitter holds a book, the suggestion has been made(3) that she may be the poetess Girolama Corsi Ramos, who wrote a sonnet on Carpaccio's portrait of her. Stylistic comparison with portraits that appear in Carpaccio's large compositions dates K1585 about 1495/1500. Closely similar to K1585 is a Portrait of a Lady in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, usually accepted as by Carpaccio. Provenance: Private Collection, Milan. Van Gelder, Uccle, near Brussels. Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin (from c. 1928). Capt. Norman Colville, London –exhibited: 'Venetian Paintings,' Matthiesen Gallery, London, 1939, no. 14. Paul Drey's, New York –exhibited: 'Giorgione and His Circle,' Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., Feb. 23-Mar. 21, 1942, no. 28, as Carpaccio. Kress acquisition, 1948 –exhibited: Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, Pa., 1950-52, no. 3;(4) after entering Denver Art Museum: 'Vittore Carpaccio,' Palazzo Ducale, Venice, June 15-Oct. 6, 1963, catalogue by P. Zampetti, no. 22, as Carpaccio, between 1495 and 1500.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1954, p. 36, as Carpaccio. (2) K1585 has been attributed to Carpaccio by P. Wescher (in Pantheon, vol. II, 1928, p. 510), A. L. Mayer (in ibid., vol. VII, 193 I, p. 69, saying that W. von Bode and B. Berenson had recognized it as characteristic work by Carpaccio), G. Fiocco (Carpaccio, 1931 p. 73; 1958 ed., pp. 34 f.), R. van Marle (Italian Schools of Painting, vol. XVIII, 1936, p. 242), Suida (see note 1, above), Berenson (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, p. 57), G. Perocco (Carpaccio, 1960, p. 55), J. Lauts (Carpaccio, 1962, p. 28, 241, 258), and G. Robertson (in Burlington Magazine, vol. CV, 1963, p. 385). (3) By Lauts (loc. cit. in note 2, above). (4) Suida, in Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, vol. XLVI, Autumn, 1950, pp. 6 ff., as Carpaccio.