The Virgin and Child

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1475

MediumLimestone with paint

DimensionsOverall: 35 1/4 × 11 1/2 inches (89.54 × 29.21 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number38-8

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

N/A

Gallery Label

The Virgin, crowned as the Queen of Heaven, gazes down at the Christ Child. He holds an apple, the symbol of Original Sin, from which he will redeem mankind. The tenderness displayed here between Virgin and Child is characteristically Gothic. As Christ reaches up to touch his mother's cheek, she responds by holding his bare foot in a comparably affectionate gesture. The graceful S-curve of the Virgin's figure, also a typically Gothic feature, contributes to her refined beauty. This sculpture was originally part of a private chapel at the Chateau of Gisors in Normandy.

Provenance

Gisors, Eure, France [1];

With Jacob Hirsch (1874-1955), New York, stock no. 724, by June 24, 1937-1938;

Purchased from Hirsch by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1938.

NOTES:

[1] According to a written statement by Jacob Hirsch that accompanied the dealer’s invoice, the sculpture is “from a castle near Rouen in the vicinity of Gisors.” A copy of the statement is in the NAMA curatorial files.

Jacob Hirsch, PhD. (1874–1955) was born in Munich, studied at Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Rome, and then founded a dealership in Munich in 1897. He moved to Lucerne in 1919 and founded Ars Classica in 1922. In 1931, he opened Jacob Hirsch Antiquities in New York. At some point, he also had a gallery in Paris. He handled coins and antiquities but also had his own collection. See Hadrien Rambach, “A List of coin dealers in nineteenth-century Germany,” in A Collection in Context. Kommentierte Edition der Briefe und Dokumente Sammlung Dr. Karl von Schäffer, ed. Henner Hardt and Stefan Krmnicek (Tübingen, Germany: Tübingen University Press, 2017), 69–70, hal-04345662. See also “Dr. Jacob Hirsch, 81, An Authority on Art,” New York Times, July 5, 1955, 29.

Published References

“Art Throughout America,” The Art News 37, no. 14 (December 31, 1938): 19, (repro.), as Madonna and Child.

Pantheon 3 (1939): 75, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 111, (repro.), as Madonna and Child.

Pictorial History of the World (Wilton, CT: Year Pictorial Publications, 1956), (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 53, (repro.), as Madonna and Child.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 68, (repro.), as Virgin and Child.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 141, (repro.), as The Virgin and Child.

Dorothy Gillerman, Gothic Sculpture in America, vol. 2, The Museums of the Midwest (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001), 215-17, (repro.), as Virgin and Child.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 47, (repro.), as The Virgin and Child.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.