Guido Reni (Bologna 1575-1642) - The Penitent Magdalen

oil on canvas - 33¼ x 28¾ in. (84.5 x 73 cm.) - Estimate: £250,000 - £350,000 ($495,750 - $694,051)

Provenance : (Possibly) Ralph, 1st Earl of Montagu, later 1st Duke of Montagu (1638-1709), Montagu House, Bloomsbury, London, or Boughton House, Northamptonshire, or Ditton Park, and then possibly by descent through his son,
John, 2nd Duke of Montagu (1690-1749), to his daughter,
Mary, Duchess of Montagu (1727-1788), wife of George, 4th Earl of Cardigan and 1st Duke of Montagu of the 2nd creation (1712-1790), Montagu House, Whitehall, London, and by descent to their eldest daughter,
Elizabeth (1743-1827), wife of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch and 5th Duke of Queensberry (1746-1812), Montagu House, Whitehall, London, and by descent to their great-great-great grandson,
Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch and 10th Duke of Queensbury (1894-1973); Christie's, London, 1 November 1946, lot 44, with another picture (40 gns to Kaufman).
Private collection, Sweden, from circa 1946.

Literature : Montagu House Pictures, MS Inventory List C of circa 1780, copied March 1918 (typed with manuscript annotations), MS. N.C. 340 Montagu-2 1780, London, National Gallery Library, no. 74, 'Guido. A Magdalene, a Head, larger than Life', valued at £60.
Inventory of Pictures at Old Montagu House, Whitehall, MS, Inventories G and H, both of circa 1817, Boughton House, Northamptonshire, listed in The Breakfast Room, no. 1, 'Gudi Reni A Magdalene'.
An Inventory of the Household Furniture Pictures &c. at Montague House Whitehall 1820, MS, Inventory MHW5, Boughton House, Northamptonshire, listed in Room no. 36/Breakfast Room, 'The Madona'.
A. McKay, Catalogue of the Pictures in Montagu House belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, London, 1898, p. 42, no. 128, listed in His Grace's Room, 'Guido Reni, The Magdalen...'

Notes : Last auctioned in these Rooms in 1946, this picture has hitherto only been published in the inventories of the Dukes of Montagu and Buccleuch, in whose collection it remained for two and a half centuries. It relates closely to The Penitent Magdalen of 1627-8, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper, Brittany, on deposit from the Musée du Louvre (see D.S. Pepper, Guido Reni. A Complete Catalogue of his Works, Oxford, 1984, p. 259, no. 120, pl. 146). In the Quimper version the Magdalen sits in a rocky landscape, enveloped by a voluminous shawl, as she adores a cross on the extreme right of the picture. Both Sir Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner dated the present work to circa 1625-7, and thus slightly earlier than the Quimper picture, after inspection of the original. In this work Reni has employed a more simplified composition that has the effect of intensifying the psychological drama of the scene. The Magdalen is here seen bust length, and closer to the picture plane, filling more of the canvas and highlighted against a dark neutral ground, with less emphasis on the drapery. Her gaze is similarly directed upwards to the right, but whereas in the Quimper picture it falls on the nearby crucifix, here it is uninterrupted, seemingly focused on an object outside the picture. Reni has also changed the pose of the Magdalen, for while the later work depicts her in the act of prayer with her hands clasped tightly together, in the present painting she covers her naked breast with her flowing hair, which she presses to her chest with crossed hands. Reni employed this dramatic gesture in other depictions of the Magdalen, such as that in the Musée National des Château de Versailles et de Trianon (see ibid., no. 126, fig. 152).

This picture was for generations in the collection of the Dukes of Montagu and later the Dukes of Buccleuch. Although it is first mentioned in an inventory of pictures at Montagu House in 1780 (op. cit.) it may well have been acquired some time earlier by Ralph Montagu, a colourful and important figure in Restoration England. Charles II appointed him Ambassador Extraordinary to the court of Louis XIV in 1669, the start of a long and successful diplomatic career. On his return to England in 1672 the King appointed him to the Privy Council, and a year later he married Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Southampton and widow of Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northampton, who possessed a considerable fortune. At the Glorious Revolution of 1689 Montagu, who had succeeded his father as 3rd Lord Montagu of Boughton, threw his support behind William III, and was rewarded with the titles of Viscount Monthermer and Earl of Montagu. A second marriage, to Elizabeth Cavendish, the widow of the 2nd Duke of Albermarle, in 1692 further increased his personal wealth, though not without certain legal problems relating to his wife's inheritance. He was raised to the title of Duke of Montagu in 1705. A prodigious collector, Ralph Montagu was able to furnish his various houses with lavish decorations and pictures. His town residence was Montagu House, in Bloomsbury, designed by Robert Hooke in the French style. It was eventually sold to the government to house the fledgling British Museum, and his son, John 2nd Duke of Montagu, built a new residence in Whitehall, also known as Montagu House. He also owned two major country estates: Boughton House, which he also had redesigned in the French style, and through marriage Ditton Park, a former royal residence in the time of Elizabeth I.

An alternative possibility for the early provenance of this picture is that it was acquired by the 1st Duke's granddaughter, Mary, and her husband, Lord George Brudenell (1712-90), who became the 4th Earl Cardigan in 1733. Between 1751 and 1760 they spent much time travelling throughout Europe, and their financial accounts indicate they were collecting on a considerable scale. Significant purchases were made at many important sales, including that of the Duke of Tallard's collection in Paris in 1756 (a group that included Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder; El Greco's Adoration of the Shepherds, both still in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch; Rembrandt's Saskia as Flora; and Rubens' Watering Place, both in the National Gallery, London). Their acquisitions were shipped back at regular intervals to London where they were displayed at Montagu House in Whitehall. Reni's Penitent Magdalen hung variously in the Breakfast Room and later in His Grace's Room, according to the 19th century inventories. Following World War II Montagu House was demolished to make way for the Air Ministry and large parts of the collection was displaced; some was shipped to Boughton House, other parts to the family homes in Scotland (which included Drumlanrig, Bowhill and Dalkeith), while a number of paintings, including the present work, were sold in these Rooms by order of the 8th Duke of Buccleuch in 1946.

Christie's London. 8 July 2008. OLD MASTER & BRITISH PICTURES (EVENING SALE)