Carlo Francesco Nuvolone

Collection of M. Francillon, Paris;
His sale, Paris, Henry, 14 April 1828 (the above according to the 1913 Christie's catalogue);
There purchased by George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758-1833), Earl Gower, later 2nd Marquess of Stafford and 1st Duke of Sutherland;
Thence by descent to his son George Granville Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), 2nd Duke of Sutherland, Stafford House, St. James's, London (in whose collection seen by Waagen, see Literature);
Thence by descent to his son George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1828-1888), 3rd Duke of Sutherland;
Thence by descent to Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1851-1913), 4th Duke of Sutherland;
His deceased sale, London, Christie's, 11 July 1913, lot 134 (as Murillo), to Jones Bros.;
Mr and Mrs Hugh F. Packenham Borthwick Norton;
Thence by descent to Mrs Eva Sardinia Borthwick Norton (d. 1988) of Southwick House, Purbrook, Hampshire by 1952;
Bequeathed by her Executors to The Royal Scottish Academy in 1990.

London, British Institution, 1828, no. 58 (as "St. Francis and Infant Christ, by Murillo"), lent by Earl Gower.

British Institution. Catalogue of the pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch Masters, London 1828, p. 14, no. 58 (as Murillo);
G. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. II, London 1854, p. 68, no. 3 (as Murillo);
C.B. Curtis, Velazquez and Murillo, London 1883, p. 215, cat. no. 251 (as Murillo);
M. Bryan, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, vol. III, London 1903-5, p. 388;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, vol. II, London 1913, p. 840 (as Murillo);
D. Angulo Iñiguez, Murillo, Catálogo Crítico, vol. II, Madrid 1981, p. 469, no. 1.774 (as 'obra discutible').

This painting is closely related in subject and in composition to a large canvas by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone in a private collection (published by F.M. Ferro in his monograph, Nuvolone, una famiglia di pittori nella Milano del '600, Soncino 2003, p. 174, cat. no. cf30, reproduced p. 326, fig. 8d). Although St. Anthony is different in each work, the figure of the Christ Child is identically posed and reappears again in Nuvolone's painting of The Holy Family in a private collection, Reggio Emilia (op. cit., p. 174, cat. no. cf29, reproduced p. 326, fig. 8b). In both this and the larger variant the Christ Child stands on an open book, embraced by the saint's right arm; St. Anthony holds lilies in his right hand, while gently clasping Christ's right hand with his left. In this little panel the torso and head of St. Anthony are turned slightly more towards the front, his upper body posture thus echoing that of a further version of the same subject in Bergamo, Cortesi Collection (Witt Library mount).

This painting had long been thought to be an autograph work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (as the inscription on the reverse of the panel indicates) and it was not until Angulo Iñiguez's monograph in 1981 that any doubt was cast on Murillo's authorship (see Literature below). Waagen, when he saw the painting at Stafford House in 1854, described it as "St. Anthony of Padua contemplating the Infant, who is standing before him on a book. A warm and delicate specimen of this subject, which, variously treated by Murillo, supplies some of his best pictures". Prof. Filippo Maria Ferro, to whom we are grateful for endorsing the attribution to Nuvolone on the basis of a colour transparency, points out that a number of Nuvolone's works were formerly attributed to Spanish artists: the Assumption of the Virgin in Grenoble and Hagar and the Angel in Rochdale were both formerly ascribed to Murillo (see Ferro, op. cit., cat. nos. cf 107 and cf 159 respectively), whilst the Guardian Angel in Darmstadt was formerly attributed to Mateo Cerezo (ibid., cat. no. cf 191).