Name: WORKSHOP OF DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO)
Brand: Saint Dominic in prayer
Price: 800000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

WORKSHOP OF DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO)
Saint Dominic in prayer
oil on canvas
28¹⁄₈ x 22⁵⁄₈ in. (71.4 x 57.5 cm.)
signed or inscribed 'doménikos theotokópolos e'poíei' (in cursive Greek, lower left, on the rock) and with the inventory number '4' (lower left)

Henri Rochefort (1831-1913), Paris.
(Possibly) H.O. Havemeyer, New York.
with Ehrich Galleries, New York, where acquired on 24 December 1910 by,
Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), New York, and by whom gifted on 14 October 1921 to the Hispanic Society of America.

M.B. Cossio, El Greco, Madrid, 1908, p. 595, no. 285, as El Greco.
E. du Gué Trapier, El Greco, New York, 1925, pp. 87-88, pl. XIX, as El Greco.
Hispanic Society of America, List of Paintings, New York, 1925, no. A83, as El Greco.
A.L. Mayer, Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco, Munich and New York, 1926, p. 37, no. 223a, as El Greco.
Hispanic Society of America, El Greco in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1927, pp. 16-17, no. A83, pl. V, as 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. 86-87, no. A83, as El Greco.
M. Legendre and A. Hartmann, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco, London, 1937, p. 358, as El Greco.
K. Pfister, El Greco, Zurich, 1941, p. 111, as El Greco.
J. Camón Aznar, Dominico Greco, II, Madrid, 1950, pp. 619 and 624, fig. 470, as El Greco.
H.E. Wethey, El Greco and his School, Princeton, NJ, 1962, p. 217, no. X-249, as a 17th century copy.
G. Manzini, L'opera completa del Greco, Milan, 1969, p. 104, no. 70e.
M.B. Cossio, El Greco, Barcelona, 1972, p. 377, no. 201, as El Greco.
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. 148, fig. 10, and 157, as 'Workshop of El Greco, under his supervision and possibly with his intervention'.

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Lot Essay

Conceived by El Greco in his Toledo studio in the late 1580s and repeated in variants through the early seventeenth century, Saint Dominic in prayer became one of the artist’s most enduring devotional compositions. The image shows the saint kneeling alone in a rocky landscape before a crucifix, illuminated by a slanting shaft of light. As Wethey observed, this composition belongs to the so-called 'outdoor' type—distinct from a second variant set indoors and a third, known only through a copy in the Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, in which the saint holds a small wooden crucifix (H.E. Wethey, op. cit., 1962, II, p. 114).

The earliest version of this type is generally dated to around 1585-90 and was formerly in the collection of Plácido Arango, Madrid. The composition was adapted after 1600 in a series of autograph canvases, including examples in the Sacristy of Toledo Cathedral and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as the variant formerly in the Rau collection (sold Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 2013, lot 19; H.E. Wethey, op. cit., 1962, II, pp. 112-13, nos. 203-05). The present painting is a high-quality workshop version executed after the ex-Rau picture; it preserves the essential structure of the composition while introducing subtle variations in the drapery and the saint’s gaunt features.