SPANISH SCHOOL, EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Portrait of Fray Miguel del Pozo (circa 1655-1712), half-length
inscribed 'el B.^eP.^eP.^o/ Fr. Miguel del / Pozo' (upper left)
oil on canvas, unframed
41 x 33³⁄₈ in. (104.2 x 85 cm.)

(Possibly) Eugen Boross (d. 1942), New York.
with Ehrich Galleries, New York, by 1916, where acquired on 26 August 1921 by,
Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), New York, for the Hispanic Society of America.

A.L. Mayer, 'Zurbarán in America', Arts & Decoration, VI, no. 5, March 1916, p. 221, reproduced p. 219, as Zurbarán.
H.L. Kehrer, Francisco de Zurbarán, Munich, 1918, pp. 57, 138 and 148, pl. XXII, dated 1630.
Hispanic Society of America, List of Paintings, New York, 1925, no. A96, as Zurbarán.
E. du Gué Trapier, Catalogue of Paintings (16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries) in the collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1929, pp. 130-132, pl. XXXV, as Zurbarán.
Hispanic Society of America, Zurbaran in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1930, no. A96, illustrated, as Zurbarán.
M.S. Soria, 'Zurbaran, Right and Wrong', Art in America, XXXII, no. 3, July 1944, pp. 135-136, fig. 8, as Juan Sánchez Cotán.
C. Pemán, 'Zurbaran y el arte Zurbaranesco en colecciones Gaditanas', Archivo español de arte, XVIII, April-June 1946, p. 164, as Zurbarán.
C. Pemán, 'Sobre un retrato zurbaranesco', Archivo español de arte, LXXX, October-December 1947, pp. 339-340, as not by Zurbarán, with an 18th century signature.
Hispanic Society of America, A History of the Hispanic Society of America, Museum and Library, 1904-1954, with a Survey of the Collections, New York, 1954, figs. 9 and 46.
J. A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España, 1958, pp. 56 and 300, no. 2612, as Juan Sánchez Cotán.
P. Guinard, Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique, Paris, 1960, p. 261, no. 424, as possibly a workshop copy or a copy after a lost original.
P. Guinard, Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique, Paris, 1988, p. 261, no. 424, as possibly a workshop copy or a copy after a lost original.

New York, Ehrich Galleries, Exhibition of 'Early Spanish Masters', 13-31 January, no. 27, as Zurbarán.
San Francisco Museum of Art, Loan exhibition of paintings by old masters, 1920, no. 77, as Zurbarán, loaned by Ehrich Galleries.

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Lot Essay

Fray Miguel del Pozo (c. 1655-1712/3) was a Mercedarian friar in Málaga, remembered for his special devotion to the sacred image of Jesús de Viñeros and his witnessing of a miracle related to the icon which bolstered the fame of his order. The Real Hermandad de Viñeros de Málaga (Royal Brotherhood of Vintners of Málaga) was formed on 12 January 1502 by the Catholic Monarchs as a civic fraternity uniting vineyard workers in the important wine-growing region of southern Castile. A religious brotherhood soon developed under the same aegis, both groups having their seat in the convent church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy).

In this portrait, Miguel del Pozo wears the arms of the Mercedarians and gazes at the miraculous image of Jesus of the Vintners, which he cradles in his left arm. The painting was acquired by the Hispanic Society in 1921 as the work of Francisco de Zurbarán, and previously bore a non-original signature of that artist. In 1944, Martín Soria published the present work as a rare figural painting by Fray Sánchez Cotán, the Spanish painter better known for his still lifes. The attribution to Cotán was repeated by César Pemán and Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño in their publications of 1947 and 1958. Paul Guinard published the present picture twice, in his 1960 and 1988 monographs on Zurbarán, as a possible workshop copy or a copy after a lost original.