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Morning Post 11/5/15

A GIOVANNI BELLINI MASTERPIECE __________________________ SOLD TO AMERICA. __________________________

We learn that the important painting "St. Francis in the Desert," by Giovanni Bellini, has been sold by Messrs. Colnaghi and Obach to Mr. H. C. Frick, the well-known American collector. The very interesting history of this early Venetian picture was told in the Morning Post on December 16, 1911.

Early in the Eighteenth 'Century the "St. Francis" was offered to the Louvre, but owing to some difficulty in regard to the period of payment a sale was not effected. In 1852 it was sold at Christie's for £735, the vendor being Sir J. Murray. It was next seen at the Art Treasurey Exhibition at Manchaster in 1857, when it was the property of Captain Dingwall. Subsequently it disappeared, and research on the part of the critics of Italian art failed to discover its whereabouts. The picture is first mentioned by the "Anonimo Veneziano," a Sixteenth Century writer, who saw it in the house of Messer Taddeo Contarini in 1525, and said: "The oil picture, on panel, representing St. Francis in the Desert, is by Giovanni Bellini. It was commenced by him for Messer Giovanni Michiel, and has in the foreground a wonderfully elaborate and highly finished landscape." The editor of the version of this work, which was published in 1903, then stated: "This picture is now in the collection of Mr. S. Dingwall, in England. It is justly considered to be one of the earliest examples of realistic landscape painting in Italy. The artist's signature, 'Joannes Bellinus,' can be seen on the stump of a tree. I have been unable, he continues, "to find any information as to this collector, and Dr. Frizzoni, the Italian critic, cannot remember where he obtained his name or the statement that he possessed the picture. I shall be glad of any further information as to this important signed work."

The information given above was evidently unknown to the editor, nor was he aware that Mr. Morris Moore, in examination before the Royal Commission on the National Gallery in 1853, said the "St. Francis was a work of singular importance."

Its further history may be told briefly. The Captain Dingwall referred to, having decided to settle in Turkey, sold his house at Sunninghill with all its contents to the late Mr. Thomas Holloway, and after this transference the Bellini and other pictures were as bad as lost for a long time. The new owner did not realise the importance of the paintings, it appears, until Mr. Langton Douglas made known their artistic value, after Mr. Holloway's death. The St. Francis ultimately became the property of Miss Driver, who lent it to the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1911-12, where it won high favour, despite its dirty condition. The panel was afterwards sent to Milan to be cleaned by Professor Cavenaghi, and when it was brought back to England the great beauty of the painting was apparent. Many expressive details were revealed in the small figure of the Saint and in the sun-flushed background of a white-walled North Italian town. The picture belongs to the earlier years of Bellini's third period, and is evidently later than the "Transfiguration" in the Naples Gallery, and the "Coronation," which has long been removed from the Church of St. Francesco to a municipal building in Pesaro, while it comes before the "Allegory" in the Uffizi and the "Madonna" of the Frari Church in Venice.

When the St. Francis came into the market there as much competition for it before it became the property of Messrs. Colnaghi, who have sold it, as we have seen, to Mr. Frick, of America.