Francesco Solimena Canale di Serino 1657 - 1747 Barra

Comte de Normand, Paris;
Rolan Robert, Nice;
With Newhouse Galleries, New York;
Anonymous sale ('Property of a Southern Collector'), New York, Christie's, 2 June 1988, lot 147, where acquired by the present owner.

These two paintings once formed part of a set of four Virtues; the others depicting Hope and Charity. They relate to Solimena's Four Virtues painted for the Pignatelli Altar in the church of SS. Apostoli, Naples, in 1723 (oil on copper; see F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples 1958, pp. 114, 261, and 266).  Bologna cites another modello, also on canvas, representing Faith in the Pisani collection, Naples (op. cit., p. 266, reproduced fig. 156).