Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Probably W.N. Hill, Bath; [1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 November - 1 December 1827, no. 59); bought by Radcliff.[2] Alexander Orloff-Davidoff, Saint Petersburg, by 1896;[3] sold 1930 to Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham [1868-1947], Old Quarries, Gloucestershire;[4] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased June 1935 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] Francis Russell, "Review of Peter Humfrey, _Cima da Conegliano_, Cambridge, 1983," _Journal of the Royal Society of Arts_ 132 (1984): 410, connects the Washington panel with that sold by Hill, described as "Cima di Conegliano: St. Jerome's Penitence, with romantic scenery, small upright, highly finished." [2] Buyer according to annotated auctioneer catalogue, Christie's Archive, London. The catalogue describes the seller as a gentleman who had lived in Italy for twenty years. [3] All references are simply to "Orloff-Davidoff collection," except for a note (in NGA curatorial files) stating "probably Alexander, according to a relative." Fritz Harck, "Notizen über italienische Bilder in petersburger Sammlungen," _Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft_ 19 (1896): 434, indicates that when the painting was in this collection the inscription read "Joannis bellinus opus." [4] Ellis K. Waterhouse stated that he saw the painting when it was being sold in London in 1930 from the Orloff-Davidoff collection; Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century_, London, 1968: 60 n. 3. [5] The bill of sale, dated 12 June 1935 was for a total of twenty-one paintings (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1848.