Bernardo Strozzi

Possibly with Giacomo ("James") Tarma, Venice;

Possibly his estate sale, London, Henry Artaria, 21 April 1842, lot 49;

Private collection, Milan, by 1966;

Art market, Milan, by 1974;

Dr. Marc Halpern, New York;

By whom sold ("Property of a Private Collector, New York"), New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 4 June 1980, lot 103 (as Circle of Strozzi);

Where acquired by M. & P. Traders,;

Private collection, Milan, by 1995;

With Galerie Sarti, Paris, by 2008 and until at least 2010 (as Strozzi);

Thereafter acquired by the present collectors, circa 2019.

Milan, Circolo dela Stampa, Palazzo Serbelloni, Dipinti di due secoli (600 e 700), 16 November - 1 December 1963;

Eugene, University of Oregon, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, February - May 2020, long-term loan.

L. Borgese, Dipinti di due secoli (600 e 700), exhibition catalogue, Milan 1963, pp. 4-5, 92-93, reproduced fig. 43 (as Strozzi);

T.L, "Due dipinti di due secoli," in Emporium 139, no. 830 (February 1964), p. 66, reproduced (as Strozzi);

L. Mortari, Bernardo Strozzi, Rome 1966, p. 149, reproduced fig. 277 (as Strozzi);

L. Mortari, Bernardo Strozzi, Rome 1995, p. 167, cat. no. 382, reproduced (as Strozzi).

Painted circa 1630–1631, shortly after Bernardo Strozzi’s arrival in Venice from his native Genoa, this arresting half-length figure exemplifies the artist’s ability to fuse acute naturalistic observation with Baroque immediacy. Widely regarded as the greatest Genoese painter of the Baroque, Strozzi presents Saint James in humble pilgrim’s garb, shown in profile with parted lips and a loose lock of hair falling against his cheek. The figure appears endowed with an intense psychological presence, as if caught mid-breath or mid-utterance, recalling Strozzi’s black, red, and white chalk drawing at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York (inv. no. 1973.1).