This luminous Virgin and Child by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo can be dated on stylistic grounds to relatively early in the artist’s career, circa 1655-1660.^[1] A work of pure grace and excellent quality, it is among the artist’s finest explorations of a subject he would explore regularly throughout his long career. As described by Buchanan in 1824, “there is a beauty and simplicity in this incomparable picture that exceeds description”^[2] Indeed, this painting has captivated audiences for generations, and its importance is further underscored by its esteemed provenance, having once formed part of the collects ions of Charles-Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802), the Dukes of Bedford, and the Norton Simon Foundation, among others.

A beautifully rendered Virgin and Child, imbued with tender emotion and captured with painterly subtlety, fill the center of this composition. Surrounded by a soft, glowing light, each figure gazes out at the audience, the child with a slightly timid expression typical of Murillo. Wearing a thin golden veil and a pinkish-lilac dress atop blue drapery, the Virgin wraps her arms around the Infant and covers Him with a white cloth as He nestles into her bosom. The roots of this particular composition ultimately lie within the oeuvre of Raphael, in particular Madonna della Sedia in the Pitti Palace^[3] and The Mackintosh Madonna in the National Gallery in London.^[4] A more contemporary inspiration for Murillo, however, seems to be Ribera’s painting of the Virgin and Child of circa 1646 today preserved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fig. 1).^[5]

Some of the first collects ors of Murillo’s works outside of Spain were the French, with many prominent collects ions featuring works by the artist, including that of the Comte d’Angiviller, Jean-Lous Gaignant, the comte de Vaudreuil, and the Duc de Choiseul. The earliest recorded owner of the present canvas was the celebrated French statesman Charles-Alexandre de Calonne. When the painting was sold from the Calonne collects ion, it was acquired by the art historian and connoisseur, Michael Bryan. After his death, it passed into the collects ion of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, in whose collects ion it remained until the mid-twentieth century, after which it was acquired by the Norton Simon Foundation.

An X-RAY of the present painting reveals that Murillo reused a canvas (fig. 2). When the painting is turned on its vertical axis 180 degrees, a faint impression of a male figure (perhaps Christ, Saint Joseph, or Saint John the Baptist) draped in thick fabric and looking downwards to the left is apparent.

^[1] Valdivieso (2010) and Angulo Iñiguez (1981) both dated the painting to 1655-1660, while Mayer (1913) dated it later in the artist’s career to 1660-1675.

^[2] Buchanan p. 290.

^[3] Inv. no. 151/Palatina (1912), oil on panel, diameter 71 cm.

^[4] Inv. no. NG2069, oil on canvas, transferred from wood, 78.8 by 64.2 cm. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-the-madonna-and-child-the-mackintosh-madonna

^[5] Inv. no. E1924-3-54, oil on canvas, 69.5 by 59.5 cm,. https://philamuseum.org/collects ion/object/102915