Lavinia Fontana

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Lavinia Fontana

1552-1614

Portrait of a Lady

Red and black chalk. Ruled border in pen and brown ink, laid down, simulated frame in pen and brown ink.

5 1/8 x 4 inches (131 x 100 mm)

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

IV, 158o

Notes:

One of 19 drawings in an album of portrait studies by Fontana (IV, 158a-s), including the artist's self-portrait (IV, 158). Album description: dark blue goatskin, tooled in gold, 14 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches (334 x 284 mm).
This drawing appears on folio 15. Cantaro has suggested a link between the present drawing and the Portrait of a Lady of the Ruini Family painted by Fontana in 1593, now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. depositi no. 36; inv. oggetti d'arte no. 536).

Provenance:

Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (1739-1802), Broadlands, near Romsey, Hampshire, and London; his son, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865), Broadlands and London; his widow, Mary (née Clavering), Lady Palmerston (d. 1869), Broadlands; her grandson, the Rt. Hon. Evelyn Ashley (1836-1907), Broadlands; his sale, London, Christie's, 24 April 1891, as lot 200, "A Volume of Portraits - in colours - by Lavinia Fontana" (bought by Murray for 4.17.6); Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.

Associated names:

Palmerston, Henry Temple, Viscount, 1739-1802, former owner.
Palmerston, Henry John Temple, Viscount, 1784-1865, former owner.
Palmerston, Emily Lamb, Viscountess, 1787-1869, former owner.
Ashley, Evelyn, 1836-1907, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.

Bibliography:

Cantaro, Maria Teresa, Lavinia Fontana, Bolognese: "Pittora Singolare" 1552-1614, Milan, 1989.
Lavinia Fontana 1552-1614, ex. cat., Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna, 1994.
Murphy, Caroline, Lavinia Fontana: A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth-Century Bologna, New Haven, 2003.

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