Workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán

Painted as one of a series of 38 paintings of martyred saints of the Mercedarian order for the Convento de San José de la Merced Descalza, Seville, in 1636;

Moved to the Alcazar Palace, Seville in 1810;

Acquired as part of a group of 16 paintings from the series by Baron Isidore for Louis-Philippe I, King of the French for his Galerie Espagnole, Louvre, Paris;

His sale ("Catalogue des tableaux, formant la célèbre galerie espagnole de S.M. feu le Roi Louis Philippe"), London, Christie’s, 13-14; 21 May, 1853 (see note); 

With J.B. Neumann, New York, circa 1935;

With Ascher and Walker, London, 1936;

With Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam 1936-1937;

Jacques Lipschitz (1891-1973), New York;

Thence by descent to the present owner.

A. Ponz, Viage de España: en que se da noticia de las cosas mas apreciables, y dignas de saberse que hay en ella, vol. IX, Madrid 1786, pp. 108-109 (the series as a whole);

J.A. Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España, vol. VI, Madrid 1800, p. 49 (the series as a whole);

C. Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles, école espagnole, Paris 1869, under “Francois de Zurbaran” pp. 7-8 (the series as a whole);

M. Gómez Ímaz, Inventario de los cuadros sustraídos por el gobierno intruso en Sevilla el año de 1810, Seville 1896, pp. 71, 80, 82-83 (the series listed by number but not by subject);

D. Ángulo-Iñiguez, “Francisco Zurbarán, Martires Mercedarios. S. Carlos Borromeo,” in Achivo Español de Arte 14 (1941), pp. 365-368, reproduced fig. 1 (as workshop);

J.A. Gaya-Nuño, Zurbarán, Barcelona 1948, p. 44, cat. no. 44;

M.S. Soria, The Paintings of Zurbarán, London 1953, p. 173, cat. no. 163 (b);

J.A. Gaya-Nuño, La Pintura española fuera de Espana, Madrid 1958, p. 340, cat. no. 3034;

P. Guinard, Zurbarán et les peintres espagnoles de la vie monastique, Paris 1960, p. 262, cat. no. 432, reproduced;

R. Torres Martín, Zurbarán, el pintor gótico del siglo XVII, Seville 1963, cat. no. 158;

T. Frati and M. Gregori, L'opera completa di Zurbarán, Paris 1973, cat. no. 196, reproduced (as workshop);

J. Gallego and K. Gudiol, Zurbarán, Barcelona 1977, cat. no. 199, pp. 92, 254 cat. no. 199, reproduced fig. 220;

J. Baticle and C. Marinas, La Galerie espagnole de Louis-Philippe au Louvre, 1838-1848, Paris 1981, pp. 239-240 reproduced (as Zurbarán and workshop, religieux martyr au treuil);

I. H. Lipschutz, “Théophile Gautier, le musée espagnol e Zurbarán,” in Théophile Gautier, l’art e l’artiste, actes du colloque international, vol. I, Montpellier 1982, p. 114;

P.F. García Gutiérrez, Iconografía mercedaria, Nolasco y su obra, Madrid 1985, pp. 93, 96 (as Zurbarán);

A. Palomino, Lives of the Eminent Spanish Painters and Sculptors, Cambridge 1987, p. 184 section 108 (the series as a whole);

J. Baticle, in Zurbarán, exhibition catalogue, New York 1987, p. 148 (the series as a whole);

J.S. Olson-Rudenko, Francisco de Zurbarán’s paintings for the Calced and Discalced Mercedarians of Seville, Ph.D. dissertation, Penn State University 2010, pp. 235, 237-238, note 1051, 240, reproduced fig. 139A;

O. Delenda, Zurbarán Los Conjuntos y el Obrador, vol.II, Madrid 2010, p. 451, cat. no. II-231 c, reproduced (as workshop). 

This painting is a rare depiction of Saint Serapion, one of the most important martyrs of the Mercedarian order, a figure whom Zurbarán also portrayed in one of his most celebrated masterpieces (Wadsworth Atheneum). This smaller canvas was painted for the Convento de San José de la Merced Descalza, Seville, along with 37 other martyrs of the order. Early descriptions of the convent note that they were hung in one of the cloisters; Ceán Bermúdez saw them in the lower cloister (“claustro baxo”) although some scholars have suggested that they may have been intended for the De Profundis chamber (see García Gutiérrez and Olson-Rudenko). In addition to these works, Zurbarán and his assistants painted several canvases for the convent and its church, most of which were seized by the invading Bonapartist armies in 1810 and moved to the Alcazar, whence they were later dispersed (see provenance). 

Sixteen of the paintings from the series were later in the collection of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. These were offered for sale in the auction of the dispersal of his Galerie Espagnole spread over three weeks at Christie’s London in May of 1853. Each canvas was sold individually and lotted sequentially into two groups of five and one group of six, lots 213-217 offered on the 13th of May, lots 260-264 on the following day, and the final five, lots 448-453 a week later, on the 21st of May. Because the catalogue descriptions were basic, generally described only as “Une Missionaire” it is not possible to identify the lot number of the present painting in the sale. All were noted as having been acquired for the collection from a “canon of Teruel” but no archival information about that transaction has survived.  

This painting later entered the collection of the modern sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) and has descended within his family to the present owner, its distinguished provenance reinforcing both the work’s historical resonance and its esteemed place within a major twentieth‑century collection.