Provenance

Anonymous printseller, London, 1835. Prince Vladimir Bariatinsky, Saint Petersburg, Russia, ca. 1864 - ca. 1920; State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, ca. 1920- May 1931[1.]; (through Rudolf Lepke Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, sold with the Stroganoff Collection, May 12-13, 1931, catalogue no. 2043, lot 73)[2.]; (with Leo Blumenreich, Berlin, May 1931)[3]. (with Galerie van Diemen, Berlin, 1932-1935)[4]; (through Paul Graupe auction house, liquidation sale of Galerie van Diemen [Berlin branch], Berlin, January 25-26, 1935, lot 51); (with Arthur Goldschmidt/J.S. Goldschmidt, Berlin, 1935). Conrad Bareiss, Salach, Germany, ca. 1938-39. (with unspecified art dealer, 1940[5]). Frederick A. Stern, New York, 1942. Zinser Collection, New York, ca. 1946. (with Jacob M. Heimann, New York, 1946-1947); Purchased by Anne R. and Amy Putnam for the Fine Arts Gallery (now SDMA), April 30, 1947; Nazi-era restitution through settlement to Galerie van Diemen, Berlin, funds for settlement provided by the estate of Walter Fitch III, 2004.

Provenance Notes

1. According to dealer Jacob Heimann (Heimann correspondence to Reginald Poland, SDMA Curatorial files, August 1, 1946), Vladimir Bariatinsky gave this painting to the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. In light of historical circumstances it is possible that this painting was acquired by the Soviet government for the State Hermitage Museum from Prince Bariatinsky when Russian private collections were nationalized (1920-1930). The painting also bore a label on the reverse that read in Russian "State Museum of Fine Arts."
2. From 1930 to 1933 the Soviet government authorized massive sales of art objects from Russian private collections and museums to be sold abroad. According to Robert C. Williams (Russian Art and American Money, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, p. 179, 182), the sale of the Stroganoff Collection, which had been nationalized by the Soviet government after the Russian Revolution, also included works of art that were not part of the Stroganoff collection but from the Hermitage museum, such as Rubens' Allegory of Eternity.
3. Art journals documenting the 1931 sale state that the painting was bought by dealer Blumenreich of Berlin, who has been identified as Leo Blumenreich, a leading art dealer. Nora de Poorter, mentions the names of "Blumenreich and Benedict" as the 1931 buyers of the painting in, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part II, The Eucharist Series, Vol.I. Brussels, Arcade Press: 1978, pg. 388, without citing a source. The name "Benedict" could refer to well-known dealer Kurt Benedict, director of Dr. Benedict & Co., Berlin (a sister company to van Diemen). No further information has been found to confirm Benedict's involvement in the sale nor the painting's subsequent transfer to Galerie van Diemen.
4. The painting is documented in the New York City branch of the van Diemen Gallery in 1932 by a document in the photo archive of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, the Hague, the Netherlands. It was lent to a Rubens exhibition at the Goudstikker gallery in Amsterdam in 1933. We presume van Diemen ownership although no lender information was given. In 1935, the Galerie van Diemen, Berlin was liquidated by order of the Nazi government. Its stock was sold through the Paul Graupe auction house in Berlin and dealer Arthur Goldschmidt bought Allegory of Eternity at the sale.
5. This painting was listed in the catalogue of the Masterpieces of Art exhibition, New York World's Fair, 1940, as an anonymous loan. The loaned artworks were from the following dealers listed below. The lender of the Allegory could have been Frederick Stern, who owned the work in 1942.

   Mortimer Brandt Gallery, Buchholz Gallery, Demotte, Inc., Downtown Gallery, Paul Drey, Durand-Ruel Inc., Durlacher Brothers, Duveen Brothers, Inc., Ferargil Galleries, Marie Harriman Galleries, Jacob M. Heimann, Jacob Hirsch, F. Kleinberger & Company, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, Robert Lebel, Paris, Karl Loevenich, Milch Art Gallery, Newhouse Galleries, Inc., A. Seligman, Rey & Co., Inc., Jacques Seligmann & Co. Inc., Spanish Art Gallery, London, Frederic Stern, Brussels, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Howard Young Galleries.

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