Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Saint Francis Kneeling in Meditation

Domenico Theotokópoulos, called El Greco · c. 1595–c. 1600

Provenance

Ownership history

Possibly in the artist’s possession at the time of his death, 1614 [see 1614 inventory of the artist’s estate in Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo (1910), repr., with notes by Rafael Sancho, Toledo, 1982, pp. 205–08]. Don Clemente de Velasco, Madrid, by 1902, until 1926 [recorded in the Velasco collection in 1902 exh. cat. and in Mayer 1926, p. 19, no. 114, pl. 7]. Durlacher Brothers, New York, by 1935 [letter from R. Kirk Askew, Jr., Durlacher Brothers, to Robert Harshe, November 29, 1935, Art Institute Archives]; sold to the Art Institute, 1935.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Madrid, Museo del Prado, Exposición de las obras de Domenico Theotocópouli, llamado El Greco, April 30 - July 31, 1902, cat. 47.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Spanish Paintings, Textiles, Furniture, Arms, and Pottery, 1936, no cat.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Masters of Spanish Painting, 1937, no cat.
Norfolk, Va., Chrysler Museum of Art, The Genius of El Greco: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, July 1–October 18, 1998, no cat.
Paris, Grand Palais, Greco, October 14, 2019–February 10, 2020; Art Institute of Chicago, El Greco: Ambition and Defiance, March 7–June 21, 2020, cat. 35. [Chicago Only].

Literature

Published references

J. Lacoste, Exposición de las obras de Domenico Theotocópouli, llamado El Greco, exh. cat. (Santa Catalina: J. Sastre et cetera, 1902), 27 cat. 47.
Manuel B. Cossío, El Greco, 2 vols. (Madrid: V. Suárez, 1908), 576, no. 139; rev. ed. by Natalia Cossío de Jiménez (Barcelona: Editorial R.M., 1972), 379, no. 215.
August L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco: Kritisches und Illustriertes Verzeichnis des Gesamtwerke (Munich: F. Hanfstaengl, 1926), 42 (ill.), 43, no. 267.
“Spanish Paintings, Textiles, Furniture, Arms and Pottery,” Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts Monthly Bulletin 7, no. 1 (October 1936): 2.
“Fifteen New Acquisitions at Chicago,” Art News 35, no. 1 (1936), 9–10 (ill.).
M[aurice] Legendre and A[lbert] Hartmann, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, Called El Greco (Paris: Hypérion, 1937), 377 (ill.).
Daniel Catton Rich, “An El Greco and a Velasquez,” Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 31, no. 1 (January 1937): 1–3 (ill.).
“Robert B. Harshe” (obituary), Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 33, no. 4 part 2 (April - May 1938): 50 (ill.).
F[rancisco] J[avier] Sánchez Cantón, De Barnaba da Modena a Goya: Exposición de pinturas de los siglos XIV al XIX recuperadas por España, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo del Prado, 1939), 11.
José Camón Aznar, Dominico Greco, vol. 1 (Madrid: Espada-Calpe, 1950), 364, fig. 240; vol. 2, 1385, nos. 578, 580; rev. ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1970), vol. 1, 383, 390, fig. 277, vol. 2, 1371, no. 584.
Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España: Historia y Catálogo (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1958), 203 no. 1391.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 100 (ill.), 204.

Comparables