King Philip IV (of Spain)
John Singer Sargent
(American, 1856–1925)
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions63.5 x 45.72 cm (25 x 18 in.)
Credit LineGift in honor of Lucille Hanna, teacher, of Waltham, Massachusetts
Accession number1998.583
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
ProvenanceSeptember, 1957, given by Mary Poland Nightingale, William Reginald Poland, and Mary Helen Poland to Brown University, where it became part of the University Portrait Collection (inventory nos. P-302 and BP.192); between about 1983 and 1991, probably stolen from Brown University. 1998, year-end gift of Dwight B. and Anna C. Heath, Providence, RI, to the MFA [see note 1] (accession date: December 31, 1998); April 28, 2016, deaccessioned by the MFA for return to Brown University [see note 2].
NOTES:
[1] According to donor Dwight Heath at the time of the gift, his mother had bought the painting at a yard sale in southeastern Massachusetts, and he received it from her in 1993. This account has never been verified.
[2] In June 2015, Brown University alerted the MFA to the resemblance of the present painting to a portrait that had gone missing from the Brown University Portrait Collection between 1983, when it was recorded as being in the offices of Brown Council for International Studies, and 1990-1991, when it was not located during a campus-wide survey. A physical examination of the MFA painting and frame, which bears Brown Portrait number P-302, confirmed that it was the same painting.
The painting was a gift to the MFA from Dwight B. and Anna C. Heath of Providence, RI. Between 1998 and 2008, Dwight and Anna Heath donated 26 objects to the MFA, including 25 African artifacts and musical instruments that remain in the MFA’s collection.
NOTES:
[1] According to donor Dwight Heath at the time of the gift, his mother had bought the painting at a yard sale in southeastern Massachusetts, and he received it from her in 1993. This account has never been verified.
[2] In June 2015, Brown University alerted the MFA to the resemblance of the present painting to a portrait that had gone missing from the Brown University Portrait Collection between 1983, when it was recorded as being in the offices of Brown Council for International Studies, and 1990-1991, when it was not located during a campus-wide survey. A physical examination of the MFA painting and frame, which bears Brown Portrait number P-302, confirmed that it was the same painting.
The painting was a gift to the MFA from Dwight B. and Anna C. Heath of Providence, RI. Between 1998 and 2008, Dwight and Anna Heath donated 26 objects to the MFA, including 25 African artifacts and musical instruments that remain in the MFA’s collection.
John Singer Sargent
1921
