Provenance
Probably Leopold III Friedrich Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau [1740-1817], Gotisches Haus, Wörlitz, near Dessau;[1] probably by inheritance to his grandson, Leopold IV Friedrich, Duke of Anhalt [1794-1871], Gotisches Haus; by inheritance to his son, Friedrich I, Duke of Anhalt [1831-1904], Gotisches Haus; by inheritance to his son, Friedrich II, Duke of Anhalt [1856-1918], Gotisches Haus; by inheritance to his son, Eduard Georg Wilhelm, Duke of Anhalt [1861-1918], Gotisches Haus; by inheritance to his son, Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt [1901-1947], Gotisches Haus; sold early 1927 to (Hugo Perls, Berlin);[2] sold via the Mannheimer collection, Amsterdam, to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[3] purchased November 1927 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 5 June 1931 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] This prince built the Gotisches Haus and its English park and was an active collector, adding early German and Netherlandish paintings to the family holdings; see C. Rost, "Der alte Nassau-Oranische Bilderschatz und sein späterer Verbleib," _Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft_ 6 (1873), 52-93, esp. 78-79, listing early catalogues of the collection. The descriptions in the early catalogues of the Anhalt-Dessau collection are not sufficiently specific to identify the _Madonna and Child with Angels_.
[2] According to a note on a photograph in the Friedländer archive, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, (RKD), The Hague; and a letter of 23 October 1961 from Hugo Perls to the NGA (in NGA curatorial files).
[3] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 120, box 265, folder 18; and transcriptions from the Duveen Brothers Records (copies and transcriptions in NGA curatorial files).
Accession Number
1937.1.41
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
painted surface: 57.6 × 46.4 cm (22 11/16 × 18 1/4 in.) | overall (panel): 58.8 × 48 cm (23 1/8 × 18 7/8 in.) | framed: 69.22 × 57.47 × 9.53 cm (27 1/4 × 22 5/8 × 3 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection