Details
CIRCLE OF DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (1541-1614)
The Annunciation
oil on canvas
3212 x 2412 in. (82.6 x 62.2 cm.)
Provenance
Private collection, Toledo.
Church of Ventas de Pena Aguilera, Toledo.
Juan Lafora, Madrid.
Charles Deering (1852-1927), Chicago, before 1924.
Mrs. Richard E. Danielson, Groton, MA, by whom gifted in 1975 to the following,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Christie’s, New York, 14 January 1993, lot 19, as ‘Circle of El Greco’, where acquired by the present owner.
Literature
M. B. Cossio, El Greco, Madrid, 1908, I, p. 570, no. 108, as circa 1604-14.
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, XVII, no. 3, March 1924, p. 32, illustrated.
A. L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli El Greco: Kritisches und illustriertes Verzeichnis des Gesamtwerkes, Munich, 1926, p. 3, no. 5a, 'Corresponding to no. 5, however finer in execution, particularly in the angel'.
M. Legendre and A. Hartmann, Domenikos Theotokopoulos called El Greco, Paris, 1937, p. 109, illustrated, as 'El Greco', owner incorrectly listed as 'Art Institute, Charles Deering collection, Chicago'.
J. Camon Aznar, Domenico Greco, Madrid, 1950, II, pp. 587 and 1357-8, nos. 32, 42 and 43, fig. 587, as 'El Greco'.
H. E. Wethey, El Greco and his School, Princeton, 1962, II, p. 170, no. X-22, as a copy, 17th century, incorrectly listed as on panel.
T. Frati and G. Manzini, L'opera completa del Greco, Milan, 1969, p. 115, no. 126g, as 'copia secentesca estranea all'ambiente del Greco'.
M. B. Cossio, El Greco, Barcelona, 1972, p. 356, no. 12, as 'El Greco', circa 1604-14, similar to the version in the Zuloaga collection, Zumaya.
A. R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985, p. 123, as 'a copy after the Toledo Annunciation'.
Exhibited
Chicago, IL, Art Institute of Chicago, 1924, on loan.
Special notice
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Lot Essay

The Annunciation was one of the most popular themes in El Greco’s iconographic repertoire, appearing throughout his career. The present picture is closest to the Annunciation by El Greco and an assistant, dateable to circa 1600-1605 and today held the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (see Wethey, op. cit., no. 42, fig. 169). The Toledo version, or another lost original of the same type, was seemingly available to El Greco’s son, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, and other pupils in his studio, as attested to by several existing workshop versions (ibid, figs. 168, 170, 173).

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