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Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida Explaining His Intended Voyage
Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida Explaining His Intended Voyage

Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida Explaining His Intended Voyage

Artist Sir David Wilkie British, 1785–1841
Date1834
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions58 1/2 × 74 1/4 in. (148.6 × 188.6 cm)
Frame: 71 3/4 × 87 3/4 × 5 1/2 in. (182.2 × 222.9 × 14 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Object numberG.57.17.1
On View
Not on view
Provenance“Mr. Holford,” Isle of Wight, 1835; R.S. Holford, London; Sir George Holford, to 1895; Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1895; T. Wallis and Sons, London; Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), May 10, 1907, lot 70, bought by White; Blakeslee Galleries sale, New York (American Art Association). April 21, 1915, lot 235, bought by Minneapolis Institute of Arts; with Hirschl & Adler Galleries; given to NCMA, 1957.
Published ReferencesG.G. F. Waagen,Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 2 (London, 1854), 203.

"Wilkie," Masters in Art (Boston, 1900-09), 40.

Hamish Miles, "Adnontatiunculae Leicestrienses: Wilkie and Washington Irving in Spain," The Scottish Art Review 12, no. 1 (1969), 21ff., illus. 23.

British Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 2, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1969), no. 113, illus. (b-w).

Hamish Miles, "Wilkie's Columbus," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 8, no. 3 (March 1969), 3-15, illus. (b-w) 2.

The Mint Museum of Art Presents British Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (exhibition catalogue) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1973), cat. no. 24, illus. (b-w).

David and Francina Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad: 1700-1900 (London: Faber and Faber, 1975), 169, 175.

Reg Gadney, Constable and His World (London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 1976), illus. 103.

William H. Truettner, "The Art of History: American Exploration and Discovery Scenes, 1840-1860," The American Art Journal 14 (Winter 1982), 4 (reference to painting for Henry Cary).

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 127.

Sir David Wilkie of Scotland (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1987), cat. no. 36, illus. (b-w).

"Sir David Wilkie of Scotland (1785-1841)," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Spring 1987), illus. (b-w) 7.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 83.

Eleanor Ross Taylor, "Imago Mundi," in The Store of Joys, Huston Paschal, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1997), 42-45, illus. (color) 42, (color detail) 45. Reprinted in North Carolina Literary Review no. 6 (Greenville: East Carolina University, 1997), 32-33, illus. (color), 33.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida Explaining His Intended Voyage, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 161, 166, illus. (color) 166, detail (color) 167.

M. Therese Southgate, MD, "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 282, no. 13 (October 6, 1999), 1207, illus. (color) cover.

Lorenz Eitner, French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century/Part I: Impressionism (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2000), 225-26, illus. (b-w) 224.

World Views: How Artists See the Earth. Newspapers in Education (supplement to the Raleigh News & Observer), n.d.: 13, illus. (color) 9, 13.

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003), 317, illus. (b-w) 316; 2nd Edition (New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2006), 327, illus. (b-w) 328.

Nicholas Tromans, David Wilkie: The People's Painter (Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 2007), mentioned 176, discussed 184-85, illus. (color) pl. 8.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida Explaining His Intended Voyage, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 344, illus. (color) 345.

Brandon Ruud and Corey Piper, Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820–1920 (exhibition catalogue) (New Haven and London: Yale University Press for Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2020), cat. no. 6, illus. (color).
Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, 1835, cat. no. 64; 1842, cat. no. 18.

Manchester, "Art Treasures," 1857, cat. no. 618.

London, Royal Academy, 1870, cat. no. 35.

London, International Exhibition, 1874, cat. no. 45.

London, Royal Academy, 1893, cat. no. 133.

Glasgow, Scottish National Exhibition, 1911, cat. no. 316.

Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "The Mint Museum of Art Presents British Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 16-December 30, 1973, cat. no. 24, illus. (b-w).

New Haven, CT, Yale Center for British Art, "Sir David Wilkie of Scotland," January 20-March 15, 1987; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, April 4-May 31, 1987, cat. no. 36, illus. (b-w).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “History and Mystery: Discoveries in the NCMA British Collection,” August 6, 2016–June 25, 2017.

Norfolk, VA, Chrysler Museum of Art, “Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820–1920,” February 12–May 16, 2021; Milwaukee, WI, Milwaukee Art Museum, June 11–October 3, 2021, cat. no. 6, illus. (color).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–May 29, 2024.
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