Object details
Object number
P21n19
Creator(s)
Alessandro Allori
(Florence, 1535 - 1607, Florence)
Title
Portrait of a Lady in Black and White
Date
about 1590-1599
Medium
Oil on poplar panel
Dimensions
98.4 x 70.4 cm (38 3/4 x 27 11/16 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Label (on the frame): C. F. Bielefeld, London [Charles Frederick Bielefeld (d. 1864) made paper-mâché frames in London in the 1840s-50s, see Jacob Simon, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and Framing of Portraits in Britain (London, 1996), pp. 43-44.]
Provenance
Collection of Colonel William Pinney, London
Purchased by the art dealers, Colnaghi & Co at auction from Christie's, London, Arber, Rutter and Waghorn, 21 July 1898. (Pinney sale, lot 31).
Purchased by T. McLean, London from Colnaghi and immediately sold back.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Colnaghi, London, August 1898 for £800 through Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), American art historian. (as Bronzino)
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Christie, Manson and Woods. Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters from Numerous Private Collections & Different Sources and a Few Pictures of J.C.W. Paul Graham, Esq. Deceased (London, 21 July 1898), p. 6, lot 31. (as Bronzino, Portrait of an Italian Lady)
Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p. 4, no. 7. (as Bronzino, "he painted some excellent portraits of the Medici family")
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 16. (as "Portrait of a Lady" by Angiolo Bronzino)
Helen Comstock. "Bronzino in American Collections." International Studio (November 1927), pp. 51-55, ill. 54. (as Bronzino, one of the Medici Princesses)
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 77-78. (as influenced by Bronzino, possibly Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Duke Cosimo de' Medici)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 174-75. (as by a follower of Bronzino)
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), ill. 58. (as influenced by Bronzino; "shows Spanish severity")
Simona Lecchini Giovannoni, “Alcune proposte per l’attività ritrattistica di Alessandro Allori,” Antichità Viva, VII (1986), 1, p. 54. (as Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a Young Girl)
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 47-8. (as style of Bronzino, possibly Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Duke Cosimo de' Medici)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), pp. 145-47, 149, 151, 159. (as Bronzino, one of the Medici Princesses)
Simona Lecchini Giovannoni. Alessandro Allori (Florence, 1991), p. 308, no. 214. (as Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a Girl)
Hilliard Goldfarb et al. Italian Paintings and Drawings Before 1800 in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Unpublished manuscript. (Boston, 1996-2000). (as Alessandro Allori)
Gallery
Dutch Room
Rights and reproductions
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