Lot Essay
Professor Angulo never saw the present picture or a photograph of it and his references are confused. Although Professor Ellis Waterhouse had tried to point out to him that it is the picture from the Eminente and Artier collections mistakenly described by Curtis, loc. cit., as of Saint Francis, Angulo disagreed (op. cit., 1981, II, pp.262-3). Mentioning the print and listing five copies, one of which he illustrates (idem, pp.263-4, and III, pl.598), he states that the picture owned by Buchanan 'debe de encontrarse en Inglaterra' but, without giving reasons, 'No puede identificarse con el del Wrotham Park'. In fact the present picture accords in every respect with Angulo's missing no.324.
The painting is first recorded in 1724 by the great historian Palomino (for whom see the portrait by Simó in this exhibition): 'Don Francisco Artier has ... five pictures, three yards high and two wide, which were owned earlier by Don Juan Francisco Eminente, and each one is a marvel. One is a horizontal picture, a Glory with little angels cavorting with various flowers in different attitudes, which is glorious indeed to look at. The other is a vertical picture depicting the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph with the Christ Child by the hand and a glory opening up above. The other three are a Saint Francis of Assisi, a Saint Francis of Paul, and a Saint Francis Xavier, each one admirable in its own way' (loc. cit.).
Francisco Eminente is later described by Palomino as 'a great protector of our Murillo' (idem, p.284) and he may well have commissioned the present picture; Angulo suggests that he may have been a relative of Francisco Báez Eminente, prominent in trade with the West Indies (Angulo, op. cit., 1981, II, p.251). As Professor Ellis Waterhouse established, 'Francisco Artier' must have been a close relative of Sir Daniel Arthur, an Irish merchant and associate of King James II who died in Spain some years before 1729; in that year his widow brought to England an important group of old masters including the late Murillo 'Angels' described by Palomino as in the collection of Francisco Artier and now at Woburn Abbey (see the Catalogue of the Exhibition, Murillo, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1982, and Royal Academy, London, 1983, pp.70 and 71, notes 3 and 4, and cat. nos. 59, 61 and 74).
The present picture then passed to the Marquesses of Santiago, in whose palace Cumberland (loc. cit.) records seeing 'two full-length pictures ... companions in size and excellence, which are superior to all the works of this author in the royal collection, and which no stranger of taste, who visits Madrid, should fail to see; the one, a St. Joseph leading by the hand a Christ of the age of eight or ten years, and overhead a glory of Cherubim; the background a landscape in a grand style, and exquisite harmony; the other, a St. Francis Xavier' (the reference to a landscape background must be a confusion with the Saint Francis Xavier; that picture, of similar size and identical early provenance to the 'Saint Joseph', is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut - Angulo, op. cit., 1982, no.309 and pl.345)
The 'Saint Joseph' remained there until the troubles of 1808. On August 5th of that year Buchanan's agent Wallis reported from Spain that 'The famous Murillos of the house of St. Jago in Madrid are on sale, but as yet I have not determined to make any offer, and their demand is even a folly to name' (Buchanan, op. cit., p.219). Buchanan goes on to record that 'The pictures of the St. Jago, by Murillo, mentioned in this letter, were purchased soon afterwards; three of the most capital of these were forwarded to Mr. Buchanan through France, to be shipped at Antwerp for England, when a favourable opportunity should present itself; and they were with other pictures thus forwarded actually in Antwerp at the period of its being besieged by the English army ... The third of these pictures was the Virgin [sic] and Joseph conducting the infant Saviour - a picture of a very fine character. It was sold to the late Mr. Harris of Bond-street for #2000.' (idem, pp.221 and 222).
The painting is first recorded in 1724 by the great historian Palomino (for whom see the portrait by Simó in this exhibition): 'Don Francisco Artier has ... five pictures, three yards high and two wide, which were owned earlier by Don Juan Francisco Eminente, and each one is a marvel. One is a horizontal picture, a Glory with little angels cavorting with various flowers in different attitudes, which is glorious indeed to look at. The other is a vertical picture depicting the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph with the Christ Child by the hand and a glory opening up above. The other three are a Saint Francis of Assisi, a Saint Francis of Paul, and a Saint Francis Xavier, each one admirable in its own way' (loc. cit.).
Francisco Eminente is later described by Palomino as 'a great protector of our Murillo' (idem, p.284) and he may well have commissioned the present picture; Angulo suggests that he may have been a relative of Francisco Báez Eminente, prominent in trade with the West Indies (Angulo, op. cit., 1981, II, p.251). As Professor Ellis Waterhouse established, 'Francisco Artier' must have been a close relative of Sir Daniel Arthur, an Irish merchant and associate of King James II who died in Spain some years before 1729; in that year his widow brought to England an important group of old masters including the late Murillo 'Angels' described by Palomino as in the collection of Francisco Artier and now at Woburn Abbey (see the Catalogue of the Exhibition, Murillo, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1982, and Royal Academy, London, 1983, pp.70 and 71, notes 3 and 4, and cat. nos. 59, 61 and 74).
The present picture then passed to the Marquesses of Santiago, in whose palace Cumberland (loc. cit.) records seeing 'two full-length pictures ... companions in size and excellence, which are superior to all the works of this author in the royal collection, and which no stranger of taste, who visits Madrid, should fail to see; the one, a St. Joseph leading by the hand a Christ of the age of eight or ten years, and overhead a glory of Cherubim; the background a landscape in a grand style, and exquisite harmony; the other, a St. Francis Xavier' (the reference to a landscape background must be a confusion with the Saint Francis Xavier; that picture, of similar size and identical early provenance to the 'Saint Joseph', is now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut - Angulo, op. cit., 1982, no.309 and pl.345)
The 'Saint Joseph' remained there until the troubles of 1808. On August 5th of that year Buchanan's agent Wallis reported from Spain that 'The famous Murillos of the house of St. Jago in Madrid are on sale, but as yet I have not determined to make any offer, and their demand is even a folly to name' (Buchanan, op. cit., p.219). Buchanan goes on to record that 'The pictures of the St. Jago, by Murillo, mentioned in this letter, were purchased soon afterwards; three of the most capital of these were forwarded to Mr. Buchanan through France, to be shipped at Antwerp for England, when a favourable opportunity should present itself; and they were with other pictures thus forwarded actually in Antwerp at the period of its being besieged by the English army ... The third of these pictures was the Virgin [sic] and Joseph conducting the infant Saviour - a picture of a very fine character. It was sold to the late Mr. Harris of Bond-street for #2000.' (idem, pp.221 and 222).