Allegory of Love

Counts Benacosi, Ferrara;[1] on consignment 1815 with Count Leopoldo Cicognara, Venice; sold 1815 to Charles William Vane, Lord Stewart [1778-1854, later 3rd marquess of Londonderry], but returned 1816 to Cicognara;[2] sold after 1821 to James-Alexandre, comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier [1776-1855], Paris; (Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, 27 March-4 April 1865, no. 118); purchased by Comte Charles de Pourtalès, Paris. private collection, England;[3] Baron Michele Lazzaroni, Paris and Rome; sold March 1920 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[4] purchased February 1922 by Henry Goldman [1857-1937], New York, until at least 1933.[5] (Duveen Brothers, Inc.); sold March 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] These owners are first mentioned in the catalogue of the Pourtalès-Gorgier sale: _Catalogue des Tableaux Anciens et Modernes Dessins qui composent les Collections de M. le Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier_, Paris, 1865: 43-44, no. 118. According to Vittorio Malamani, _Memorie del Conte Leopoldo Cicognara_, 2 vols., Venice, 1888: 2:113-114, the painting was found by Cicognara in the attic of an old house in Ferrara. [2] Vittorio Malamani, _Memorie del Conte Leopoldo Cicognara_, 2 vols., Venice, 1888: 2: 113-114, 125-133. Stewart’s brief ownership is also recorded in a seal bearing his coat of arms now affixed to the stretcher of the relined canvas. Ross Watson identified the seal in 1971; see his notes in NGA curatorial files. [3] The Paris branch of Duveen Brothers wrote to the New York branch on 29 December 1920, describing the visits of Henry Goldman (they spell the name Goldmann) to see "the Titian" and, after Goldman asked them where the picture "had turned up," their telling him "that Lazzaroni, who was an amateur and had been studying Titian for some years, having spent some years tracing it from the time it left the Pourtalès Collection, had found the picture in England" (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II.I, Collector's files, reel 312, box 457, folder 1 [Goldman #1, 1911-1925], copy in NGA curatorial files). [4] Duveen records document their possession of the painting: it is entered under Lazzaroni's name on 26 March 1920 in their Paris ledger, and the earliest date listed in the "X Book" entry for the painting is 30 September 1920, where it is described as "Painting by Titian, 'Lady at Toilet', ex Baron Lazzaroni" (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series I.C. Business records, Paris House, reel 27, box 75, Paris ledger 3, June 1917-May 1922, page 372; Series V. Duveen Brothers records at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reel 422 [Berenson X book, 1910-1927]; copies in NGA curatorial files). [5] The invoice for the painting is dated 3 February 1922, and Goldman responded the same day, outlining his plan to pay the price in three installments no later than 10 October 1924 (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II.I, Collector's files, reel 312, box 457, folder 1 [Goldman #1, 1911-1925], copy in NGA curatorial files). The painting was published later the same year: Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Ein unbekanntes Meisterwerk Tizians,” _Belvedere_ 1 (1922): 91; Wilhelm R. Valentiner, _The Henry Goldman Collection_, New York, 1922: no. 6. It continued to be published as in the Goldman collection by both Bernard Berenson, _Italian Pictures of the Renaissance_, Oxford, 1932: 573, and Lionello Venturi, _Italian Paintings in America_, trans. Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott, 3 vols., New York and Milan, 1933: 3:no. 508. [6] The invoice for 24 paintings, including "An Oil Painting on Canvas representing Alfonso D'Este and Laura Dianti known as A Lady at a Mirror - by Titian," is dated 9 March 1937. Payment was to be made in five installments, the last no later than 5 May 1938. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II.I, Collector's files, reel 329, box 474, folder 5 [Kress, Samuel Henry, c. 1936-1939]; copies in NGA curatorial files.) See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/190.