Provenance
Probably W.N. Hill, Bath; [1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 November - 1 December 1827, no. 59); bought by Radcliff.[2] Alexander Orloff-Davidoff, Saint Petersburg, by 1896;[3] sold 1930 to Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham [1868-1947], Old Quarries, Gloucestershire;[4] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased June 1935 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] Francis Russell, "Review of Peter Humfrey, _Cima da Conegliano_, Cambridge, 1983," _Journal of the Royal Society of Arts_ 132 (1984): 410, connects the Washington panel with that sold by Hill, described as "Cima di Conegliano: St. Jerome's Penitence, with romantic scenery, small upright, highly finished."
[2] Buyer according to annotated auctioneer catalogue, Christie's Archive, London. The catalogue describes the seller as a gentleman who had lived in Italy for twenty years.
[3] All references are simply to "Orloff-Davidoff collection," except for a note (in NGA curatorial files) stating "probably Alexander, according to a relative." Fritz Harck, "Notizen über italienische Bilder in petersburger Sammlungen," _Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft_ 19 (1896): 434, indicates that when the painting was in this collection the inscription read "Joannis bellinus opus."
[4] Ellis K. Waterhouse stated that he saw the painting when it was being sold in London in 1930 from the Orloff-Davidoff collection; Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century_, London, 1968: 60 n. 3.
[5] The bill of sale, dated 12 June 1935 was for a total of twenty-one paintings (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1848.
Accession Number
1939.1.168
Medium
oil on panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions
overall: 48 × 40 cm (18 7/8 × 15 3/4 in.) | framed: 66.68 × 58.74 × 10.8 cm (26 1/4 × 23 1/8 × 4 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection