Madonna and Child with Carnation

Artist Joos van Cleve (Netherlandish, 1511-1540/1541)

Dateca. 1535

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/8 x 18 1/4 inches (61.28 x 46.36 cm)
Framed: 31 5/16 x 25 7/8 inches (79.53 x 65.72 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-50

SignedNone

On View

Not on view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionThree-quarter-length figure of the seated Madonna holding a carnation in right hand. The Christ child seated on red cushion on her lap holds cherries in right hand. At right foreground, a marble pedestal with pomegranate on ledge.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drei Jahrhunderte Vlämische Kunst, 1400-1700, Die Vereinigung bildender KünstlerInnen Wiener Secession, Vienna, January 11-February 23, 1930, no. 74.

Exposition internationale coloniale, maritime et d'art flamand: Section d'art flamand ancien, Antwerp, June-September 1930, no. 73.

An Exhibition of the Von Auspitz Collection of Old Masters, London, Thomas Agnew & Sons Galleries, London, December 1932, no. 5.

Masterpiece of the Week, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, December 22, 1935, no cat.

Five Years of Collecting, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, December 1938, no cat.

Special Exhibition, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, December 1940, no. 11.

Gallery Label

Joos van Cleve, like other Flemish artists of his time, was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. Here, this is especially apparent in the soft modeling of flesh of the Virgin and Child, which glows like marble, and the silhouette of the figures against a dark background, which makes them stand out as if in carved relief. The figures are also arranged to follow Italian Renaissance taste for classical order and compact groupings. The carnation held by the Virgin is often depicted as a symbol of Christ's passion, which is why the child shies away from it.

Provenance

Possibly from a convent, Palencia, Spain, by 1915 [1];

With A.S. Drey Gallery, London, by 1915;

Stephan von Auspitz (1869-1945), Vienna, by 1925-1931;

Purchased from von Auspitz by Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands and New York, stock no. V/863, 1931-1933 [2];

Purchased from Bachstitz Gallery, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

NOTES:

[1] According to M. J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. 9 (Leiden, 1931), 136n58.

[2] Record of painting in Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York, Bachstitz Gallery Records, box 19, folder 7, copy in NAMA curatorial file.

Published References

Ludwig von Baldass, Joos van Cleve: Der Meister des Todes Mariä (Vienna: Krystall-Verlag, 1925), pt. 1:36-38; pt. 2: no. 77, p. 29, (repro.).

Drei Jahrhunderte vlämische Kunst, 1400-1700: CX Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Künstler Weiner Secession, exh. cat. (Vienna: Adolf Holzhausens NFG, 1930), 36, (repro.).

Gustav Glück, "Drei Jahrhunderte vlämischer Kunst: Ausstellung in der Wiener 'Sezession‘, I. Teil," Belvedere 9, no. 3 (January-June 1930): 80.

Ludwig von Baldass, "Drei Jahrhunderte flämische Malerei," Pantheon 5 (March 1930): 133.

Exposition internationale coloniale, maritime et d'art flamand Section d'art flamand ancient: Tome 1: Peintures, Dessins, Tapisseries exh. cat. (Antwerp: Monnom, 1930), 28.

Max J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. 9, Joos van Cleve, Jan Provost, Joachim Patenier (Berlin: Cassirer, 1931), no. 58, pp. 44, 136, (repro.).

An Exhibition of the Von Auspitz Collection of Old Masters, exh. cat. (London: Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1932), 6.

Heinrich Leporini, "Verkauf der Sammlung Auspitz," Pantheon 9 (January-June 1932): 71.

“Madonna with the Carnation,” Art News (May 28, 1932): 1, (repro.).

Lili Frohlich-Burne, "Die Sammlung Auspitz-Wien,“ Pantheon 10 (July-December 1932): 400.

Tancred Borenius, "Shorter Notices: The Stefan von Auspitz Collection," The Burlington Magazine 61, no. 357 (December 1932): 287-88, (repro.).

Alfred M. Frankfurter, “Paintings in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art,” in “The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 29-30, 40, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 23, 26, 138, (repro.).

"The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts,” The Teachers College Scout 5, no. 1 (April 1934): 35, 36, (repro.).

Letter from E. W. Edwards to Walter H. Siple, June 8, 1934, Cincinnati Art Museum archives.

Letter from Léo van Puyvelde, to the Cincinnati Art Museum, May 3, 1939, Cincinnati Art Museum archives.

"Special Exhibitions," Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art; Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 3 (December, 1940): 1.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts: Founders and Benefactors (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 17, (repro.).

"Gallery Changes," Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art; Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 6 (November 1941): 6.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 56, 60, 167, (repro).

Aimée Crane, ed., A Gallery of Great Paintings, exh. cat. (New York: Crown, 1944), 16, (repro.).Bottom of Form

Charlton Fortune, Notes on Art for Catholics. Based on the Collection of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Paterson, New Jersey: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1944), 42, (repro.).

Leo van Puyvelde, Les primitifs flamands (Paris: Marion, 1947), 29, 32, (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), 76, (repro.).

Catalogue of Colour Reproductions of Paintings Prior to 1860 (Paris: UNESCO, 1950), 62-63, (repro.).

Leo van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siècle des van Eyck (Paris: Elsevier, 1953), 336-37, (repro.).

Ingvar Bergström, Den symboliska nejlikan: I senmedeltidens och renässansens konst (Malmö, Sweden: Alhems Förlag, 1958), 12-14, 18, 25-27, 30-32, 41, 44-45, (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), 260.

Carl Gustaf Stridbeck, "Den gåtfulla nejlikan. Några reflektioner kring ett aktuellt ikonologiskt motiv,“ Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 29, no. 3-4 (December 1960): 82, 84-85, 97, (repro.).

Ingvar Bergström, "Nejliksymbolen än en gång,“ Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 30, nos. 1-2 (1961): 32-34, 40, (repro.).

Leo van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel (Paris & Brussels: Elsevier, 1962), 298, 301, (repro.).

Max J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 9, Joos van Cleve, Jan Provost, Joachim Patenier, trans. H. Norden (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1973), no. 58, p. 30, (repro.).

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), 94, 98, 257, (repro.).

John Oliver Hand, "Joos van Cleve: The Early and Mature Paintings,” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1978): 210.

Mark Carter Leach, "Michelangelo Invenit, Joos van Cleve Explicavit," Studies in Iconography 5 (Highlands Heights, KY: Northern Kentucky University, 1979): 95-96, 100, 104n8, (repro.).

Franklin W. Robinson and William H. Wilson, eds., Catalogue of the Flemish and Dutch Paintings, 1400-1900, exh. cat. (Sarasota, FL: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1980), unpaginated, as "Cornelis van Cleve.”

Catherine Loisel-Legrand, ed., Acquisitions et restaurations recentes, exh. cat. (Besançon, France: Musee des Beaux-Arts et d' Archeologie, 1984), unpaginated, (repro.), as “Joos van Cleve and workshop.”

Mary Ann Scott, Dutch, Flemish, and German Paintings in the Cincinnati Art Museum: Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, exh. cat. (Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1987), 38-40, 39, (repro.).

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), 15, (repro.).

Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City (Columbia: University of Missouri Press 1993), 131.

Reindert Leonard Falkenburg, The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin and Child, 1450-1550, trans. Sammy Herman (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1994), 86-87, 138n334, (repro.)

Top of FormBottom of Form

Jane Turner, ed., The Dictionary of Art, vol. 7 (New York: Macmillan, 1996): 426.

Letter from John Oliver Hand to Burton L Dunbar, May 17, 2004, NAMA curatorial files.

John Oliver Hand, Joos van Cleve: Painting in Antwerp in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), no. 91, pp. 100, 104-106, 171, (repro.).

Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 9, 20, 23, 29, 235, 277-288, 279, (repro.).

Michael E. Abrams, “Passion flower in famous Madonna painting was added after artist died, art museum agrees,” Florida Wildflowers (2009). http://www.flwildflowers.com/vancleve/

Micha Leeflang, Joos van Cleve: A Sixteenth-Century Antwerp Artist and his Workshop (Turhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2015), 188-189.

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.