Collection Online as of June 4, 2023

Portrait of a Woman

c. 1518

circle of Andrea del Sarto

(Italian, 1486–1530)

Italy, 16th century

Oil on wood

Framed: 108 x 86.5 x 8 cm (42 1/2 x 34 1/16 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 82.5 x 62.2 cm (32 1/2 x 24 1/2 in.)

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection 1944.92

Location

114 Late Northern Renaissance

Description

King Francis I’s deep interest in Italian Renaissance culture manifested itself not only through acquiring important works of art but also by bringing leading architects, scholars, and artists to Paris. Chief among these figures was the Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto. The sitter’s distinctively French hood and black veil suggest that someone talented closely connected to the artist painted this work during his brief time in France.

Provenance

A. W. Young (sold, Christie's, London, February 26, 1910, lot 92, to Carfax Gallery)

Carfax Gallery (London, England)

Joseph Duveen, Lord Baron Duveen, 1869-1939 (New York, New York; London, England), by 1919, according to a letter of January 21, 1919, from Bernard Berenson to Duveen)

James P. Labey and Glenn Hall (New York, New York), 1920

Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss, Cleveland, 1920, upon her death, held in trust by the estate

Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Estate, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944.

Citations

Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Reproduced: p. [12], Plate II, cat. no. 14; Mentioned: p. 28, cat. no. 14 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 409-411; Reproduced: p. 410

Exhibition history

CMA, 1936: "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition CMA," cat. no. 164, repr. pl. XXXIV.