Art Institute of Chicago
Annunciation
Unknown forgerLinkedCulture matchlcp-d5d773ad87aa
- Date
- probably 19th century, in the style of early 16th century
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, heightened with brush and brown wash, white gouache, and gold paint on blue-toned tan laid paper
- Culture
- Germany
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 149028
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
This drawing is not what it appears to be. It shows a typical Renaissance subject—the Annunciation, when the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear the son of God—and is executed in a technique common in Germany in the early 16th century. However, recent analysis has proven that this work is a forgery. An unknown draftsperson drew the composition on a sheet of old German paper datable to around 1500 but employed a blue pigment that was invented only in 1709. Created with the intent to deceive, the drawing passed through the art market and several private collections as an authentic 16th-century work.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Provenance
- Jacques Auguste Boussac (b. 1885; Lugt 729b); sold, February 25, 1924. Galerie G. Petit, May 10-11, 1926, lot 70. Palais Galliera, December 8, 1964, lot 63. Sold by Robert Lebel, Paris, to Dorothy Edinburg, April 1965.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033973
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