Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez and Pietro Martire Neri

Private collection, Bologna;

Don José de Salamanca y Mayol, Marqués de Salamanca and 1st Conde de Llanos (1811–1883);

His sale (‘Galerie Salamanca’), Paris, Hôtel Salamanca, Rue de la Victoire, 50, Pillet, Le Roy and Febvre, 3–6 June 1867, lot 37, unsold at 16,200 francs (as Velázquez);

Salamanca Collection sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, Pillet and Haro, 25–26 January 1875, lot 35, for 19,300 francs, to Luisa Gonzalés (as Velázquez);

Luisa Gonzalés (1847–1924), wife of Auguste Dreyfus (1827–1897), Hôtel Dreyfus, 3 avenue Ruysdaël, Paris;

His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 29 May 1889, lot 115, for 5,600 francs (as Velázquez), where probably unsold;

Thence probably by family descent to Anne de Talleyrand Périgord, Duchess de Premio Real, self-styled Duchess of Dreyfus-Gonzalez (1877–1945), Paris, by 1936;

Probably acquired from the above, or from her heirs, by a private collector in Paris, 1958;

Thence by descent to his son, Switzerland;

By whom sold (‘Property from a Private Collection’), New York, Sotheby's, 1 February 2018, lot 48 (as Velázquez and Neri), for $4,066,600 (incl. premium), where acquired by the present collector.

A. Palomino, Museo pictórico, 1724, Madrid 1936 (ed.), p. 167;

C.B. Curtis, Velazquez and Murillo: A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Works of Don Diego de Silva Velazquez and Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, London and New York 1883, no. 156, p. 66 (as Velázquez);

G.C. Cruzada Villaamil, Anales de la vida y de las obras de Diego de Silva y Velázquez, escritos con ayuda de nuevos documentos, Madrid 1885, p. 322, no. 137 (as Velázquez);

C. Justi, Diego de Velazquez und sein Jahrhundert, Bonn 1888, vol. I, pp. 192–93, n. 1 (as Velázquez and Neri);

A.L. Mayer, Diego Velazquez, Berlin 1924, pp. 147–48 (as Velázquez);

A.L. Mayer, ‘Pietro Martine Negri, ein italienischer Nachahmer des Velazquez’, in Belvedere, September 1928, vol. XIII, pp. 60–63, reproduced (as Neri perhaps after Velázquez);

H. Voss, ‘Zur Kritik des Velázquez-Werkes’, in Jahrbuch der Preußischen Kunstsammlungen, vol. 53, 1932, pp. 49–51, reproduced on p. 49, fig. 6 (as Velázquez and Neri);

E. Lafuente Ferrari, ‘En torno a Velázquez: un artículo de Hermann Voss’, in Archivo Español de Arte, 22, 1932, pp. 268–70 (as Velázquez and Neri);

A.L. Mayer, Velazquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings, London 1936, p. 100, no. 426, reproduced pl. 141 (as Neri for the greater part; at best begun by Velázquez);

B. de Pantorba, La vida y la obra de Velazquez: Estudio biográfico y crítico, Madrid 1955, pp. 236–37, no. 172, reproduced (as Velázquez and Neri);

H. Voss, ‘Über das bildnis der Maggiordomo Segni von Velázquez’, in Varia velazqueña. Estudios sobre Velázquez y su obra, Madrid 1960, vol. I, pp. 335–38, vol. II, reproduced pls 103–5 (as Velázquez);

J. López-Rey, Velázquez. A Catalogue Raisonné of his Œuvre, London 1963, pp. 283–84, no. 474, reproduced pls 364 and 365 (as by Neri after Velázquez);

A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Pintura italiana del s. XVII en España, Madrid 1965, p. 357 (as Velázquez and Neri);

P.M. Bardi, L’opera completa di Velázquez, Milan 1969, pp. 110–11, no. 140 (as attributed to Velázquez);

J. López-Rey, Velázquez. The Artist as a Maker, Lausanne and Paris 1979, pp. 113–14, reproduced pl. 39 (as Neri, presumably after a lost sketch by Velázquez);

E. Harris, Velazquez, Oxford 1982, pp. 151–52, reproduced p. 152, pl. 155 (as copy by Neri of a lost original by Velázquez);

R. Barbiellini Amidei, ‘L’iconografia pamphiliana. Notizie dei ritratti di Papa Innocenzo X’, in S. Alloisi (ed.), Imago Pietatis 1650. I Pamphilj a San Martino al Cimino, exh. cat., Rome 1987, p. 100 (as Neri after a lost sketch by Velázquez);

D. Ortiz, A. E. Pérez Sánchez, J. Gallego (eds), Velázquez, exh. cat., New York 1989, p. 236 (as a disputed work by Velázquez);

O. Melasecchi, ‘Pietro Martire Neri ritrattista cremonese nella Roma di Innocenzo X’, in Innocenzo X Pamphilj: Arte e potere a Roma nell’età barocca, A. Zuccari and S. Macioce (ed.), Rome 1990, pp. 184–85, reproduced on pp. 183–84, figs 6–7 (as begun by Velázquez and completed by Neri);

J. López-Rey, Velázquez. Painter of Painters, 2 vols, Cologne 1996, vol. I, p. 176 (as Neri, presumably after a sketch by the Master that has not been preserved);

S. Salort Pons, Velázquez en Italia, Madrid 2002, pp. 233 and 370–73, no. 24, reproduced in colour on p. 233, pl. 197 and on p. 371 (as Neri and Velázquez?);

F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, Rome 2007, vol. III, reproduced p. 700, fig. 558 (as Neri);

J.M. Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez: vida y obra de un pintor cortesano, Zaragoza 2011, p. 291, reproduced on p. 292 (as Neri);

M. Tanzi, Pietro Martire Neri: Celebratory Portrait of Ancislao Gambara, Paris 2011, p. 9, p. 11, reproduced fig. 4 (as Neri [and Velázquez?]);

V. Damian in La Vierge enfant de Francisco de Zurbarán, Trois portraits par Simon Vouet, Pietro Martire Neri et Angelika Kauffmann, Tableaux Bolonais, Vénitiens et Napolitains du XVI^e et XVII^e siècle, exh. cat., Galerie Canesso, Paris 2014, pp. 50–51, reproduced on p. 50, fig. 1 (as Pietro Martire Neri [and Diego Velázquez?]);

G. Kientz, Velázquez, L’affrontement de la peinture, Paris 2015, pp. 262–77 and p. 365 (as Velázquez and Neri);

G. Kientz in Velázquez, exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, 2015, pp. 26, 258, 264–66 and 344, no. 77, reproduced on p. 265 (as Velázquez and Neri).

Madrid, Casón del Buen Retiro, Velázquez y lo Velazqueño, 10 December 1960 – 23 February 1961, no. 103 (as Velázquez and Neri);

Paris, Grand Palais, Velázquez, 25 March – 13 July 2015, no. 77 (as Velázquez and Neri).