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The Annunciation
by Albert Bouts
About the Artwork
The scene of the Annunciation to Mary that she will give birth to Christ is depicted here as a contemporary scene that may have been familiar to any viewer at the end of the 1400s. Mary is portrayed as an ordinary but wealthy woman who is interrupted by the Archangel Gabriel as she reads a book of hours. This type of book was enormously popular in the late Middle Ages as a prayer and devotional book, particularly among the wealthy, literate nobility, and city aristocracy.
Provenance
Graf Sierstorpff, Driburg, Germany April 19, 1887: [Sale: Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, April 19, 1887, Berlin Germany, no. 106] before 1912: Eugen Schweitzer (1888–1981), Berlin, Germany -1915: (M. Knoedler & Company, New York, NY) 1915-1942: John L. Severance (1863-1936), Cleveland, OH 1942-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Exhibition of the John L. Severance Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 12, 1942-March 14, 1943). Exhibition of the Month: Texture in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6-December 8, 1947). Classic to Baroque: A Style Change in the Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30-November 13, 1949). 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951). Masterpieces of Flemish Art: Van Eyck to Bosch. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Bruges, Belgium (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 26-September 11, 1960); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (co-organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1960). Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965). The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Albert Bouts (Netherlandish, 1451/55–1549)
- Date
- c. 1480
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 75.2 x 69 x 8.5 cm (29 5/8 x 27 3/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 50.2 x 41.5 cm (19 3/4 x 16 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Bequest of John L. Severance
- Accession no.
- 1942.635
More by Albert Bouts in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00000266
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