The Visitation

ca. 1643

French, 1602-1674

A tight circle of feminine support leaves men at the margins, a rare occurrence in European painting of the 17th century. As told in the Biblical Gospel of Luke, the central figures are Elizabeth and her younger relative Mary, who share the happy news that they are both pregnant—Elizabeth with John the Baptist and Mary with Jesus. For Christians, this meeting symbolized the transition from the Old Law to the New Law of Christianity, a change also expressed in the passage from muted tones to brilliant primary colors.

Oil on canvas

44 1/4 x 38 1/2 in. (112.4 x 97.8cm)

Frame: 50 1/4 x 55 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (127.6 x 141 x 11.4cm)

Gift of Barney A. Ebsworth

2011.12

Provenance: Commissioned for the Chapelle Tubeuf in the Église de la Congrégation de l’Oratoir, Paris; seized during the French Revolution and placed on deposit at the Dépôt des Monuments Français, at least until October 1795, when it was stored in the Palais du Louvre, Paris; Comte de Canclaux, as of 1874; Comtesse Rocquigny; Mme. Vignon, Paris; acquired from her in July 1936 byWildenstein, Paris and New York; sold in September 1960 to Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California, until its deaccession in 1968; Wildenstein to 2010

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryParis, France, Palais de la Présidence du Corps Législatif, Explication des ouvrages de peinture exposés au profit de la colonisation de l’Algérie par les Alsaciens-Lorrains, 1874, no. 45

New York, New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., Paintings of the French Seventeenth Century , November 8-30, 1935, no. 6, illus. (frontispiece)

New York, New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., The Great Tradition of French Painting, June – October 1939, no. IO, illus. p. 31

New York, New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., French Painting of the Time of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, May 9 – June 1, 1946, no. 8, illus. p. 36

Louisville, Kentucky, J. B. Speed Art Museum, Women in French Painting, December 1950 (no catalogue)

Paris, France, Orangerie des Tuileries, Philippe de Champaigne, February-March 1952, no. 20

New Orleans, Louisiana, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Masterpieces of French Painting through Five Centuries: 1400-1900, October 17, 1953- January 10, 1954, no. 15.

New York, New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., The Arts of France From Francois Ier to Napoleon Ier, October 2005 - January 2006. Text by Guy Wildenstein and Joseph Baillio. Cat. no. 23, pp. 118-120.

Published ReferencesA. Félibien, Entretiens sur les vies et les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes, V, Paris, 1688, p. 174 [later eds.: Paris, 1696, II, p. 580, and Amsterdam, 1706, IV, p. 215]

F. Le Comte, Cabinet des singularitez d’architecture, peinture, sculpture, et gravure…, I, Paris, 1699, p. 114

A.-J. Dézallier d’ Argenville, Voyage pittoresque de Paris…, Paris, 1749, p. 52 // J. B. Descamps, La Vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois…, II, Paris, 1754, p 67

A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres…(revised ed.), III, Paris, 1762, p. 373

J. A. Piganiol de la Force, Description historique de la ville de Paris, Paris, 1765, II, p. 296

J.A. Dulaure, Nouvelle description des curiosités de Paris, Paris, 1786, pp. 451 and 556

L.V. Thiery, Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris,Paris, 1787, I, p. 323, II, p. 541

G. de Saint-Georges, Mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l’ Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture…, Paris, 1854, I, p. 243 (reference is to the altarpiece)

A. Lenoir, “Catalogue historique et chronologique des peintures et tableaux réunis au Dépôt National des Monuments Français,” Revue Universelle des Arts, XXI, 1865, p. 82, no. 163 (text first published in Bulletin archéologique publié par le Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments, Paris, 1854, pp. 275 ff.)

A. Lenoir, Inventaire général des richesses d’ art de la France, archives du Musée des Monuments Français, II, Paris, 1886, p. 272, no. 706

R.P. Ingold, L’Église de l’Oratoire, Paris, 1887, p. 48

A.M. Frankfurter, “The French Tradítion: Festival Show,” Art News, XXXVII, June 10, 1939, p. 14, illus.

G. Isarlo, “Philippe de Champaigne,” Arts, February 12, 1952, p. 7, illus.

“La Chronique des Arts,” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6^e pér., LVII, February 1961, illus. p. 32, no. 103

B. Dorival, Philippe de Champaigne: la vie, l’ oeuvre, et le catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre, Paris, 1976, I, pp. 51, note 60, 79, 101 and note 188, 113, note 8, 154 and note 6, and II, pp. 22-23, no. 30 and also cited under nos. 31, 32 and 85, illus. II, P. 403, fig. 30

A.S. Harris, review of Bernard Dorival, Philippe de Champaigne, 1602-1674, in Art Bulletin,LXI, June 1979, pp. 319, 321

C. Wright, The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Boston, 1985, p. 157 // B. Dorival, Supplément au catalogue raisonné de l’oeuve de Philippe de Champaigne, Paris, 1992, pp. 19-20, cited under nos. IO and II

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and elsewhere, Masterworks from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Llille, 1992-1993, pp. 118, cited under no. 19, and 120, note 8 (entry by A. Brejon de Lavergnée) [French ed. of cat., 1995, pp. 138 and 140, note 8]

R. Loche, Genève, Musée d’ Art et d’Historie: catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels de l’école française : XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Geneva, 1995, pp. 80, 82

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