Lot Essay
The present drawing is related to the picture in the Portland Art Museum, dating from around 1670-80 (fig. 1), D. Angulo Iniguez, Murillo, Madrid, 1981, II, pl. 383. The painting corresponds almost exactly with the drawing, except that the Madonna's halo was changed from an aura of light to a thin circular band. Comparable highly finished chalk drawings from the period of 1655-70, some of which were formerly in the collection of Baron St. Helens, are extant, J. Brown, Murillo and his Drawings, Princeton, 976, nos. 14-32, illustrated, and Christie's, London, 5 July 1988, lot 112, illustrated. Many of these drawings are preliminary studies of central figures in a painting and do not, as the present sheet, show a complete composition with framing lines which suggests that it was a ricordo of a picture or maybe a presentation drawing for a patron.
The most important group of drawings by Murillo comes from the collection of Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St. Helens (1753-1839), which he acquired from the library of Seville Cathedral while serving as British Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain from 1790-94. The drawings were sold by his nephew and heir Sir Henry Fitzherbert at Christie's in 1840. Sixty Murillo drawings were included in that sale, only twenty percent of which are known today. All the drawings from this source are accepted by Professor Jonathan Brown as autograph.
The most important group of drawings by Murillo comes from the collection of Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St. Helens (1753-1839), which he acquired from the library of Seville Cathedral while serving as British Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain from 1790-94. The drawings were sold by his nephew and heir Sir Henry Fitzherbert at Christie's in 1840. Sixty Murillo drawings were included in that sale, only twenty percent of which are known today. All the drawings from this source are accepted by Professor Jonathan Brown as autograph.