Portrait of a Man in Armor

ArtistFollower of Giovanni Battista Moroni Italian, 1520/24–1578

Date1563

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions100 3/8 x 63 3/4 in. (255 x 161.9 cm)
Frame: 116 x 79 x 4 in. (294.6 x 200.7 x 10.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Object numberGL.60.17.46

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCreated in Brescia in the second half of the sixteenth century; Lord Stalbridge, London; Richard de Aquila Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge (1837-1912); Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Baron Stalbridge (1880-1949); [Christie’s, Manson & Woods, London, May 3, 1929, lot 44, sold as Moroni]; [Thomas Permain, Esq.] [1]; William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), San Francisco, New York, San Simeon, May 31, 1929, S/B lot 164 [2]; [Hearst sale “Art Objects and Furnishings from the William Randolph Hearst Collection” presented by Saks Fifth Avenue in collaboration with Gimbel Brothers under the direction of Hammer Galleries, 1941; lot 164-1]; [Gimbel Bros., Inc., November 30, 1942, sales ticket no. 525]; [Max B. Berman, New York]; [French & Co., New York, December 5, 1944 to stock no. 77274/9] [3]; sold December 7, 1949 to Samuel H. Kress Collection, New York, K1687 [4]; gift December 9, 1961 of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the North Carolina Museum of Art, no. GL.60.17.46.

[1] Annotated sale catalogue lists buyer as “Permain”. Listed as E. Permain, Esq. in Kress records https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2954, but probably refers to the London art dealer Thomas Permain, who sold manuscripts to W. Randolph Heart: https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-beauvais-missal-new-piece-of.html.

[2] William Randolph Hearst Archive, B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, LIU Post: S/B (Southern Boulevard warehouse, Bronx) lot 164, Article 1, Album 22 (Miscellaneous paintings), p. 14. See microfiche 88 and digitized Hearst acquisition record at https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AWSS35953_35953_43759411;prevRouteTS=1669948817323 and William Randolph Hearst Archive, S/B lot 164, Album 19, p. 34b, https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AWSS35953_35953_43775395;prevRouteTS=1669949775259. According to one inventory card, Nash’s Magazine purchased the painting “5/31/29.” Because the card also says “Lot #44” under “their reference no.,” the date probably should read 5/3/29, the date of the Stalbridge sale. The card also indicates that the painting was located at San Simeon, having been shipped to San Francisco 1/17/1930 by American Express. The painting was transferred December 1, 1937 to American Newspapers, Inc., another Hearst property.

[3] French & Co. records at GRI. Berman consigned a number of works to French & Co. in 1944, including other works that had come from the Hearst collection. The painting was on loan from French & Co. to the Los Angeles Museum [forerunner to LACMA] from 1 October 1946 until 1948. The card is annotated “2-25-53 Dr. Valentiner says Item 1 [Moroni] returned [to owner] in 1948.”

[4] On loan to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1950–1953.
Published ReferencesGertrud Lendorff, Giovanni Battista Moroni der Porträtmaler von Bergamo (Winterthur, Schönenberger & Gall, 1933), 91.

D. Cugini, Moroni pittore (1939), 322.

Art Objects & Furnishings from the William Randolph Hearst Collection (auction catalogue) (New York: Hammer Galleries, 1941), 22, illus. (b-w) (no. 164-1).

W. E. Suida, The Compleat Collector (January 1944), 16.

Julius S. Held, "Le Roi à la Ciasse," The Art Bulletin 40, no. 2 (June 1958), 144 illus. fig. 2.

William Suida, "The Samuel H. Kress Collection," Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 46, no. 227 (Autumn 1959), 14, 16.

The Samuel H. Kress Collection (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1960), 94, illus. (b-w) 95.

Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII (Phaidon Press, 1973), 34, illus. fig. 60.

Barbara Furlotti, "Giovanni Francesco Orsini, un nome per il 'Ritratto de gentiluomo' della Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco di Milano," in Bollettino d'Arte (January-March 2010), 64, illus. 65 (as by Agostino Galeazzi).
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum, 1946.

Philadelphia, PA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Autumn, 1950, "The Samuel H. Kress Collection," cat.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "A Gift to North Carolina: Italian Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection," February 5-April 24, handout no. 16.

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