Details
WORKSHOP OF DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO)
The Penitent Magdalene with a Crucifix
oil on canvas, unframed
2458 x 2034 in. (62.5 x 52.7 cm.)
signed or inscribed 'doménikos theotokópolos e'poíei' (in cursive Greek, lower left)
Provenance
with Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris,
(Possibly) their sale, Paul Chevallier, Paris, 3-5 June 1907, lot 201.
with Ehrich Galleries, New York, from whom acquired on 15 April 1911 for $3,500 by,
Arabella Duval Huntington, née Yarrington (circa 1850-1924), New York, and by whom gifted to the Hispanic Society of America on 12 January 1922.
Literature
(Possibly) M.B. Cossio, El Greco, Madrid, 1908, either p. 595, no. 378, or p. 616, no. 305, or p. 600, no. 383, p. 616, as El Greco (see H.E. Wethey, loc. cit.).
Hispanic Society of America, List of Paintings, New York, 1925, no. A68, as Attributed to El Greco.
A.L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco, Munich and New York, 1926, p. 47, no. 296 (305), as ‘Perhaps only workshop’.
Hispanic Society of America, El Greco in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1927, pp. 28-29, no. A68, pl. XI, as Attributed to El Greco.
E. du Gué Trapier, Catalogue of Paintings (16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries) in the collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1929, pp. 98-99, no. A68, as Attributed to El Greco.
F. Rutter, El Greco (1541-1614), New York, 1930, p. 102, no. 102, as El Greco.
J. Gallart y Folch, El espiritu y la tecnica del Greco, Barcelona, 1946, pp. 47-48, pl. XI, as Attributed to El Greco.
J. Camón Aznar, Dominico Greco, Madrid, 1950, p. 414, as based on the model at Museo de Cau Ferrat, Sitges.
H.E. Wethey, El Greco and His School, Princeton, NJ, 1962, pp. 249-250, no. X-413, as '17th century copy (?)'.
G. Manzini, L'opera completa del Greco, Milan, 1969, p. 100, no. 58b, as 'a variant'.
M.B. Cossio, El Greco, Barcelona, 1972, p. 391, no. 332.
M.A. Codding, 'A Legacy of Spanish Art for America: Archer M. Huntington and the Hispanic Society of America', Manet/Velázquez. The French Taste for Spanish Painting, G. Tinterow and G. Lacambre eds., exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 2003, p. 323.
M.B. Burke, 'El Greco at The Hispanic Society of America', El Greco Comes to America, The Discovery of a Modern Old Master, I. Reist and J.L. Colomer eds., New York, 2017, pp. 144, 155, and 158, as Manner of El Greco.
Exhibited
Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, Eleventh series of 100 paintings by Old Masters, 1911, no. 70, as El Greco.
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Lot Essay

This Penitent Magdalene with a Crucifix is a workshop variant of a composition devised by El Greco in his Toledo studio in the late 1580s. Its emotional charge and theatrical lighting aligned with the heightened mysticism and Counter-Reformation ideals that shaped the artist’s final decades in Toledo.

The present painting corresponds to the so-called Sitges type, after the version in the Museu Cau Ferrat, and relates closely to other variants in the Museo de Santa Cruz in Toledo, the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, and the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Given the number of closely related workshop variants, its provenance prior to the 20th century cannot be securely reconstructed (see H.E. Wethey, loc. cit.).

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