Provenance Research at the Wadsworth

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is committed to pursuing clear provenance for the 50,000 objects of art in our care. In recent years, starting in 2002, the museum began in-depth provenance research on our permanent collection supported through the generosity of the Chase family of Connecticut. In accordance with the 2003 criteria announced by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the American Association of Museums (AAM), and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets (PCHA), the museum completed an initial review of the history of 257 European paintings.

As a result of this review, the museum determined a painting then under scrutiny to have clear provenance:

Battista Dossi, Italian c. 1490-c.1542
Battle of Orlando and Rodomonte, c. 1527-30
Oil and tempera on canvas
32 1/2 x 57 7/16 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1949.81

Dossi’s work is now fully documented. Previously owned by Oscar Bondy of Vienna, the painting was confiscated by the Nazis in 1938 during the occupation of Austria then on deposit at Hitler’s Fuhrermuzeum in Linz. Next, it was transferred to the Munich Checkpoint and eventually returned to the Bondy family and bought by the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1949 from Oscar Bondy’s wife, Elizabeth A. Bondy, at the Kende Galleries in New York.

Every effort has been made to ascertain provenance for the 257 paintings that were part of the Chase-funded project. While new discoveries constantly emerge, incomplete documentation exists for a small subset of 17 works:

Antwerp Anonymous, attributed to Gillis van Valcenborch
The Trojan Horse, 17th c.
Oil on panel
20 x 26 3/8 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1965.3

Didier Barra
Italian, active ca. 1608-after 1652
View of Naples, 1647
Oil on canvas
49 x 69 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1963.39

Antonio Francisco Bayeu y Subias
Spanish, 1734-95
Portrait of Don Pedro Arascot, 1786
Oil on canvas
45 1/8 x 31 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1965.2

Ambrosius Benson
Flemish, c. 1495-1550
Virgin and Child
Oil on panel
9 1/8 x 7 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1945.352

Abraham Bloemart
Dutch, 1564-1651
Neptune and Amphitrite, c. 1630-35
Oil on canvas
40 x 55 in.
Gift of Arthur E. Erlanger, 1964.223

Niccolo di Buonaccorso
Italian, died 1388
The Annunciation, 1378-88
Tempera and oil on panel
15 x 10 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1951.94

Antonio Canal (Canaletto)
Italian, 1697-1768
View of Venice, Piazza and Piazetta San Marco, c. 1740
Oil on canvas
26 x 40 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1947.2

Pieter Jacobsz Codde
Dutch, 1599-1678
A Musical Party, 1631
Oil on panel
12 x 17 in.
The Ella Galup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1962.447

Domenico Corvi
Italian, 1721-1803
A Miracle of St. Filippo Neri, mid 1770s or 1780s
Oil on canvas
69 x 87 7/8 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1981.24

Taddeo di Bartolo
Italian, 1362/3-1422
Madonna and Child, last decade of the 14th century
Tempera and oil on panel
28 x 18 7/16 in.
Gift of the Robert Lehman Art Foundation, 1962.444

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
Italian, 1727-1804
Christ Healing the Blind, 1752
Oil on canvas
28 x 40 7/8 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund and by exchange, 1952.289

Abraham van Dyck
Dutch, 1635-72
Portrait of an Old Woman
Oil on panel
29 x 21 in.
1957.165

Jan Sanders van Hemessen
Flemish, ca. 1500-1566
Loose company (A Joyous Company), 1543
Oil on panel
33 x 46 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1941.233

Karel van Mander
Dutch, 1548-1606
The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1590-95
Oil on panel
13 1/8 x 16 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1956.28

Philips Wouwerman
Dutch, 1619-1668
Portrait of a Man on Horseback
Oil on panel
13 3/8 x 12 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1968.13

Paolo da Venezia, called Paolo Veneziano
Italian, active 1333-c. 1362
The Angel of the Annunciation
Tempera on wood with frame
10 3/8 x 2 7/8 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1941.156

Pair with above
The Virgin Annunciate, c. 1340-44
Tempera on wood with frame
10 3/8 x 4 in.
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1941.157

As new research, technologies, and resources emerge, we hope to make further progress on completing the provenance dossiers for these works.

For all serious inquiries and research regarding provenance of objects in our collection, the museum maintains a policy of open access to our archives. Our curatorial and registration teams are happy to provide further information or address inquiries. Researchers should contact the Registrar’s Office at registrar@thewadsworth.org or (860) 838-4019. Press should contact our communications team at media@thewadsworth.org.

Header image: Battista Dossi, Battle of Orlando and Rodomonte (detail), c. 1527-30. Oil and tempera on canvas.