Attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Seville 1618 - 1682

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owners at the beginning of the 20th century.

This hitherto unrecorded work appears to be a fine example of the type of lámina (or painting on hard support) produced by the leading baroque painter working in Seville during the 17^th century, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The subject of the Inmaculada was one of the most important and popular iconographies within Spanish Golden Age Painting, which was further proliferated following the issuance by Pope Alexander VII in 1661 of the papal bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, which fully recognised and legitimised the cult of The Immaculate Conception.

That Murillo painted a significant number of láminas (for example, on copper, obsidian and other stone) is attested to by the record of such works in extant documentation from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. In the inventory drawn up on the death of the artist’s son Gaspar in 1685, for example, no less than nine are recorded; and on the death of the artist’s great patron Don Justino de Neve in 1685, his other principal patron Don Nicolás Omazur (who also owned lot 339 in this sale) acquired a further seven. Despite the clear documentation of these works however, only a relatively small number of láminas by the artist have been correctly identified today. This is perhaps partly due to the reluctance of the leading Murillo expert of the 20^th century, Diego Angulo Iñiguez, to accept any such works, adhering rigidly to his interpretation of the word lámina as panel. In his seminal monograph on Murillo (published in 1981) he includes all works listed as on copper under ‘obras discutibles’ (uncertain attributions). More recently however, the subject has been reconsidered in detail by Professor William B. Jordan, as a result of which a number of these works have been correctly restored to the artist’s oeuvre (see ‘A Forgotten Legacy: Murillo’s Cabinet Pictures on Stone, Metal and Wood’, in Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 – 1682); Paintings from American Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, March – June 2002, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July – October 2002, pp. 63 – 73).

The present work appears to have been unknown to Angulo Iñiguez, who included three treatments of The Immaculate Conception on copper (one erroneously listed as on canvas): one is a painting (oil on copper, 27.5 by 18.4 cm.) formerly belonging to George Vivian of Claverton Manor, Bath, which was sold in these rooms, 10 July 2003, lot 43, for £300,000 (see D. Angulo Iñiguez, Murillo, Madrid 1981, vol. II, p. 364, no. 719); another (oil on copper, 47 by 33.5 cm.) is listed in the inventory of 1788 of the Prince of the Asturias, the future King Charles IV, for his collection of the cabinet pictures in his Casita del Príncipe at the Escorial, and is probably identifiable with a painting today in the Arango Collection, Madrid (see op. cit., p. 371, no. 765); and a third was recorded by Palomino and Ceán as hanging in the Sacristy in La Cartuja, Granada, although its only listed measurement of ½ vara  (approximately 42 cm.) indicates it is probably not identifiable with either the present or the Vivian versions (see op. cit., p. 365, no. 726).

It appears that Murillo’s láminas were conceived as entirely independent works, painted as objects for private devotion, and the present painting is no exception in this respect. Although the composition seems highly familiar, and indeed the pose of the Virgin can be related to the artist’s full-scale altarpiece in the Musée Ferrer, Ponce (see op. cit., vol. II, pp. 125-26, no. 117, reproduced vol. I, plate 368), the overall composition is entirely unique to the artist’s oeuvre. In stylistic terms, the painting can be compared closely to the Vivian painting, in which the drapery is similarly depicted with delicate brushwork detailing the soft folds of the white dress and the volume of the blue mantle, with an almost identical soft yellow shawl draped around the Virgin’s shoulders. Although the pose of the Virgin differs in each work, the positioning of her hands, with the elegant points of her fingertips delicately touching, are rendered with a remarkable likeness. Both paintings also share in common the soft modelling to the figures, notably to the putti, with the light purple drape around the waist of the putto directly to the left of the Virgin rendered in soft glazes so characteristic of the artist’s style.

Although the attribution of this work to Murillo has yet to be established beyond all doubt, it appears in all probability to be one of only a few láminas by the artist identified today. As such it would represent an important addition to the oeuvre of an artist with whom the iconography of The Immaculate Conception is most strongly associated in the entire history of Spanish painting.

We are grateful to Professor William B. Jordan, who on the basis of photographs believes this painting to be an entirely characteristic work by Murillo and suggests a tentative dating to the last decade of the artist’s career. Professor Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, to whom we are also grateful, believes the picture to be by a close disciple of Murillo, working in the circle of Francisco Meneses Osorio, an opinion also given on the basis of photographs.