报喜

Provenance1791-1817 Chartreuse de Champmol, near Dijon, France (possibly)A visitor to the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery in Dijon, now in France, but in the 15th century the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy, recorded seeing in the Prior's room paintings, originally in the ducal chapel of the monastery: "... paintings on wood of the type of the earliest Flemish painters, which come from the chapels of the Dukes; they are about four feet high. The first, about a foot wide, is an Annunciation..." The monastery was very largely destroyed in the French Revolution, but had been the burial place of the Dukes of Burgundy, and contained many important works. The painting mentioned is thought likely to be the Washington painting, although the measurements (in the French pied, or foot, of the period) do not match very exactly.1817-1841 - Brussels, Belgium. C.J. Nieuwenhuys, William II, King of the Netherlands1817 - Bought at an auction sale in Paris by the major dealer C.J. Nieuwenhuys of Brussels, who sold it to William II, King of the Netherlands. In Brussels until 1841, then in The Hague. 1841-1850 - Hague, Netherlands. William II, King of the NetherlandsIn a book of 1843 Nieuwenhuys says of the picture that it was "from a set with two others by the same master, painted for Philip the Good and destined to adorn a religious foundation in Dijon". A modern scholar has also claimed that the Virgin has the features of Philip's Duchess Isabella of Portugal.1850 - 1930 - Saint Petersburg, Russia. Hermitage Museum 1850 - Lot 1 in an auction in in in The Hague, bought by Czar Nicholas I of Russia for the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Probably between 1864 and 1870 the Hermitage transferred it to canvas, as is often done with panel paintings when the wood develops problems.1930-1937 - Pittsburgh, PA, US. A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust1929 - Franz Matthiesen, a young German art dealer, was asked by the Soviet Government to compile a list of the hundred paintings in Russian collections which should never be sold under any circumstances. He was most surprised to be shown several of these paintings not long after in Paris by Calouste Gulbenkian, who had traded them with the Russians for oil. Gulbenkian wanted him to act as his agent on further purchases, but Matthiesen instead formed a consortium with Colnaghi's of London and Knoedler & Co of New York, which in 1930 and 1931 bought twenty-one paintings (Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Veronese, Velázquez, Rembrandt, van Eyck). 5 June 1931 it was deeded to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust.1937-present - Washington, DC, US. National Gallery of ArtIn 1937 the Trust gave it, together with other twenty paintings bought from the Russians, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where they form some of the most important paintings in the collection.