Grotto with a praying monk near Amalfi
The picture shows a praying monk in a grotto with mountains in the background. In the foreground, a kneeling monk is depicted to the left in front of an image of the Virgin Mary. The view leads out of the grotto into the open. An archway and houses can be recognised in the middle ground. In the background on the right is a coastal town, behind which are the mountains under a cloudy sky.
According to the title of the work, this is a depiction of a grotto near the town of Amalfi in Italy.
Reverse:
On stretcher: Stamp "Eigentum der [/] Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (provenance mark, after 1945); blue tyre chalk "1714" (inv. no. CCP Munich); handwritten, in black "K1167" (inv. no. Kremsmünster); round, white label "K [/] 1167" (inv. no. Kremsmünster); white label "1714(960)" (inv. no. CCP Munich, inv. no. "Führerbau"); white, square label, blue border, perforated "960" (inv. no. "Führerbau"); handwritten, in black "L 37" (not identified).
c. 1830/40-without date: Franz Ludwig Catel
(...): Whereabouts unknown
without date: ? Dr Martens, Bremen [presumably Dr Friedrich Adolf Karl Hinrich Martens (1907-1943)], acquisition path unclear
without date - presumably 1940: ? Art shop Eugen Brüschwiler, Munich, acquisition path unclear
presumably 1940-30 June 1945: Adolf Hitler ("Sonderauftrag Linz"), Munich/Kremsmünster/Altaussee, acquisition path unclear
30.06.1945-10.06.1949: American Military Government, Central Collecting Point Munich, seizure
10.061949-22.02.1952: Bavarian Minister President, Munich, fiduciary takeover
22.02.1952-1960: Trustee Administration of Cultural Property at the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Munich, fiduciary takeover
1960-today: Federal Republic of Germany, Munich/Berlin, acquisition from former Reich assets on the basis of Article 134 of the Basic Law
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