Charity

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Museum

Charity

c. 1590

ArtistAbraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566–1651)

View artist →

Medium: oil on wood
Dimensions: Framed: 87 x 100 x 10.2 cm (34 1/4 x 39 3/8 x 4 in.); Unframed: 68.6 x 54.5 cm (27 x 21 7/16 in.)
Classification: Painting
Style: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
Origin: Netherlands, late 16th Century
Institution: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Market Intelligence

Observed sale facts, comparable evidence, artist index history and modeled research remain separate.

Public evidence

Last known price—0 matched observed sales

Observed median—

Observed sales0

Artist index—

No rights-cleared normalized observed sale is attached to this artwork. No synthetic price history is shown.

Artist index unavailableNo completed public artist-index build exists.Artist-level context is not an artwork valuation.

Comparable Sales

Same-artist public sales ranked by medium, creation year, dimensions and sale recency.

Evidence ranked

No public-rights comparable sales meet the current evidence criteria. RELICT does not fill the table with research-only or licensed-only facts.

Provenance

Public

Probably until 1992

Private collection, Caracas, Venezuela

1992

(Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 17, 1992, no. 18 [as "attributed to Abraham Bloemaert"]; unsold)

1992-1993?

American private collection?

1993

(Sotheby’s, New York, private treaty sale, June 16, 1993, sold to Jack Kilgore)

1993-1994

(Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc., New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1994-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Source provenance text

Private collection, Caracas, Venezuela (Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 17, 1992, no. 18 [as "attributed to Abraham Bloemaert"]; unsold) American private collection? (Sotheby’s, New York, private treaty sale, June 16, 1993, sold to Jack Kilgore) (Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc., New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

The Cleveland Museum of Artconfidence 100%

Exhibitions

Public

Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651) and His Time

Source exhibition text

Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651) and His Time. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg, FL (organizer) (January 28-April 8, 2001).

The Cleveland Museum of Artconfidence 100%

Related public works

Visual neighbours

Explore catalog →

Portrait of Hugh Hope

Portrait of Hugh Hope

Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756–1823) · 1805

Allegorical Figure

Allegorical Figure

Bernardo Strozzi (Italian, 1581?-1644) · 1631

Processional Cross

Processional Cross

Master of Santa Chiara (Italian) · 1315

Saint John the Baptist

Saint John the Baptist

Dieric Bouts (Netherlandish, 1415–1475) · 1470

The Death of Sophonisba

The Death of Sophonisba

Pierre Guérin (French, 1774–1833) · 1805

Sourced Overview Evidence

Abraham Bloemaert drew on traditional depictions of the Virgin and Child for this allegorical image of Charity: a woman surrounded by children, one an infant for whom she has bared her breast. Bloemaert was one of the leading proponents of the Mannerist style in the Northern Netherlands. Characteristics of that style include exaggerated figural proportions, contorted poses, heightened colors, densely packed compositions, and a deliberate eroticism—invoked here to emphasize the magnetic quality of Charity’s serene beauty.

The Cleveland Museum of Artconfidence 100%

Evidence state

0 observed sales · 0 comparable sales · 6 structured provenance events · 1 structured exhibitions.

Place Of OriginShort DescriptionProvenance TextExhibition HistoryCredit Line