Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Saint Martin and the Beggar

Domenico Theotokópoulos, called El Greco · c. 1597–c. 1600

Provenance

Ownership history

Possibly in the artist’s studio at the time of his death, 1614 [the 1614 inventory of the artist’s estate includes “un S. Martin” (a St. Martin); transcribed by F[rancisco] de B[orja de] San Román [y Fernández], El Greco en Toledo, Madrid, 1910, p. 193]; possibly by descent to his son, Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos (d. 1631), Toledo [the 1621 inventory of Jorge Manuel’s possessions includes “170 Un San Martin a caballo, de bara y terzia y tres quartas” (170 A Saint Martin on horseback, of one vara and a third by three quarters); transcribed by Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, “De la vida del Greco,” Archivo español de arte y arqueología 3 (1927), p. 301]. Marquis de Perinat, Madrid, by 1910 [according to New York 1915]. Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1912, with a half-share sold to Knoedler, New York [Stein 1993, p. 259, citing documents in the Durand-Ruel Archives, Paris, and letters to Louisine W. Havemeyer]; sold by Knoedler to Charles Deering (d. 1927), Chicago, by 1922; on loan to the AIC from 1922 [On loan from 1922 to 1931, when it was sent to Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey McCormick; Art Institute Archives]; given to his daughters Mrs. Chauncey McCormick and Mrs. Richard E. Danielson, 1924; Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, in a division of their joint property, by 1931; given to the Art Institute, 1949.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Loan exhibition of paintings by El Greco and Goya for the benefit of the American Women War Relief Fund and the Belgian Relief Fund, 1915, cat. 4.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 176.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 76.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Spanish Paintings, Textiles, Furniture, Arms, and Pottery, 1936, 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.
Berlin, Staatliche Mussen, El Siglo de Oro: The Age of Velázquez, July 1 - October 30, 2016, cat. 5; Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, November 25, 2016 - March 26, 2017.
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. 47. [Chicago Only].
Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, El Greco in Budapest, Oct. 28, 2022 - Feb. 19, 2023, cat. 61.

Literature

Published references

Loan exhibition of paintings by El Greco and Goya for the benefit of the American Women War Relief Fund and the Belgian Relief Fund, exh. cat. (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1915), 10 cat. 4 [as The Legend of St. Martin].
August L Mayer, El Greco. Eine Einfühlung in da Leben und Werken des Dominico Theotocopuli gennant El Greco (Munich: Delphin Verlag, 1916), 52.
Georgiana Goddard King, “The Rider on the White Horse,” Art Bulletin 5, no. 1 (September 1922): 9, fig. 1.
M[arian] C[omings], “El Grecos in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18 (March 1924): 29 (ill.), 32–33.
Exposition d’art espagnol, exh. cat. (Paris: Frazier-Soye, 1925), 93 under cat. 48.
August L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco: kritisches und illustriertes Verzeichnis des Gesamtwerkes (Munich: F. Hanfstaengl, 1926), 48, no. 298.
A[lice] C[hild] J[enckes], “Two Paintings by El Greco,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston] 25, no. 148 (April 1927): 17.
Emilio Huguet del Villar, El Greco en España (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1928), 103.
August L. Mayer, “‘St. Martin with the Beggar’ by El Greco,” Apollo 10 (1929): 151 (ill. opp. p. 151).
Walter Dill Scott and Robert B. Harshe, Charles Deering, 1852-1927: An Appreciation together with his Memoirs of William Deering and James Deering (Boston: Privately Printed, 1929), n.p. (ill), 49.
Ella S. Siple, “Art in America: Messrs. Knoedler’s Exhibition,” Burlington Magazine 55, no. 321 (1929): 332.
Frank Rutter, El Greco (1541–1614) (New York: E. Weyhe, 1930), 62, 98, no. 78, pl. 69.

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