Artwork Details
28-1/4 x 21-5/8 in. (canvas) 38-7/8 x 31-7/8 x 3-3/4 in. (framed/glazed)
Mark DescriptionInscribed initials in black oil paint, right center edge: D.T.
Accession NumberThe Clowes Collection
CopyrightEuropean Painting and Sculpture Before 1800
Color PaletteProvenance
Parish church of Almadrones (Guadalajara), Spain, until 1936 or immediately after;{1} removed to the Fuerte of Guadalajara (former convent of San Francisco) until 1941;{2} at the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, for conservation treatment, 1941-45; restituted to the bishopric of Sigüenza in 1945, sold and legally exported in 1952;{3} (Newhouse Galleries, Inc. New York); G.H.A.Clowes [1877-1958], Indianapolis, in1952;{4} Clowes Fund Collection, Indianapolis, since1958; On long-term loan to the Indianapolis Museum of Art since 1971 (C10035); Given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, in 2007 (2007.53). {1} Eyewitness accounts confirm that prior to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), this painting, along with others from the same series, was in the parish church of Almadrones (Guadalajara). The American hispanist, Harold Wethey, in a letter to Dr. G.H.A. Clowes wrote: "Dr. F. Layna Serrano...is a native of the province of Guadalajara and knows this whole region. He visited the church at Almadrones before the civil war and saw the apostles when they still hung in the church. He says that the pictures were high on the walls and hard to see. He intended to go back and investigate them further, but the civil war came and he never had another opportunity." See IMA Clowes Registration Archive (C10035). {2} The Marqués de Lozoya, Director General de Bellas Artes from 1939 to 1951, had the Almadrones paintings taken to the Prado for restoration: "El Sr. Comandante del 'Fuerte de Guadalajara' halló en los desvanes del mismo NUEVE lienzos enrollados los que fueron toscamente restaurados por un sargento aficionado a la pintura, y después se colocaron en un sitio alto y muy poco visible. En una de las visitas que a este centro realizó el Sr. Marqués de Lozoya pudo observar que los aludidos lienzos eran auténticos "Grecos" proponiendo y consiguiendo del señor comandante fueran traidos a los talleres del Prado, para su adecuada restauración como, en efecto, así se hizo. Dichos cuadros representan "San Juan", "Santiago", "San Felipe", "San Simón", "Santo Tomás", "San Bartolomé", "San Pablo", "El Salvador" y "San Andrés" (Declaration of Francisco J. Sánchez Cantón to the Museum's Patronato in 1944). The document is included in the unpublished catalogue of paintings by El Greco and made available to the IMA by Leticia Ruiz in November 2005. As Ruiz observed, the word "NUEVE" in capitals means that the series was not complete when it arrived at the Prado. The paintings were received by the Prado on 10 September 1941: "Museo Nacional del Prado. He recibido del señor Teniente Coronel Primer Jefe de los Talleres y Centro electrotécnico de Ingenieros de Guadalajara NUEVE LIENZOS del Apostolado del GRECO, que entrega a este Museo del Prado según órdenes recibidas y que serán restaurados en el mismo. Madrid a 10 de septiembre de 1941." Expediente de restauración de nueve lienzos del Greco (apostolado) propiedad de la Agrupación de Ingenieros de Guadalajara (10 de septiembre) Año 1941. (Archivo del Museo del Prado). {3} Five paintings (including this one) were restituted to the bishop of Siguenza in 14 July 1945 and subsequently sold. The four remaining paintings in the series were acquired by the Spanish Government for the Prado Museum (Archivo del Museo del Prado, caja 79). A letter from the director of the Prado, Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor (Madrid, 21 November 1952) states that the paintings were "shipped out of Spain this year." See IMA Clowes Registration Archive (C10035). {4} Invoice dated 6 November 1952, see IMA Clowes Registration Archive (C10035).
Gallery Labels
Domenikos Theotokopolous, known as El Greco (the Greek), was a native of the island of Crete. He was trained there as a painter of icons, before going to Venice (by 1568) and reinventing himself as a Renaissance painter under the influence of Titian and Tintoretto. After nearly a decade in Italy, El Greco established himself in the Spanish city of Toledo and radically transformed his art yet again.
Crete gave him life, and Toledo his brushes . . .
-Fray Hortensio Félix Paravicino, Obras posthumas divinas y humanas, 1641
Exhibition History
Exhibition Name
Venue
Dates
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Chengdu Museum
September 28, 2020 - January 4, 2021
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Chengdu Museum
September 29, 2020 - January 4, 2021
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Hunan Provincial Museum
May 29, 2020 - September 13, 2020
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Hunan Provincial Museum
May 29, 2020 - September 13, 2020
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Guandong Museum
January 10, 2020 - May 17, 2020
Rembrandt to Monet: 500 Years of European Painting from the Clowes Collection and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Guandong Museum
January 10, 2020 - May 17, 2020
El Greco: Arts and Crafts
Museo de Santa Cruz
September 8, 2014 - December 9, 2014
El Greco: Painter and Master
Museo de Santa Cruz
September 8, 2014 - December 9, 2014
El Greco Exhibition
The National Museum of Western Art
October 18, 1986 - December 14, 1986
Special Show for the 100th Anniversary
September 29, 1963 - September 29, 1963
El Greco to Goya
Rhode Island School of Design
April 19, 1963 - May 26, 1963
Italian and Spanish Paintings from the Clowes Collecltion
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
October 1, 1962 - October 25, 1962
A Lenten Exhibition
Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame
March 11, 1962 - April 8, 1962
Paintings from the Collection of George Henry Alexander Clowes
John Herron Art Institute and Museum
October 3, 1959 - November 1, 1959
Pontormo to Greco: The Age of Mannernism
John Herron Art Institute and Museum
February 14, 1954 - March 28, 1954
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