Ambrosius Benson, 'The Magdalen Reading', possibly about 1520

On the reverse are a brand and a damaged seal in red wax. The brand, the letters GC within a circle, has not been identified. Two well-preserved impressions of the same seal are on the reverse of the blind stretcher and frame of Parmigianino’s portrait of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci, formerly on loan at the National Gallery, L909, but returned to its owner in November 2010. It shows the arms three boars’ heads couped within a double tressure flory counterflory; the shield is surrounded by the motto TRIA JUNCTA IN UNO and the collar of the Order of the Bath. The arms are those of the Gordons, Earls of Aberdeen: Azure three boars’ heads couped or armed proper langued gules within a double tressure flowered and counterflowered with thistles, roses and fleurs de lis of the second. The seal must be that of Robert Gordon (1791–1847), created in 1829 a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath; the portrait by Parmigianino certainly belonged to him. Robert was a diplomat and leased the Balmoral estate; his pictures were sold at Christie’s on 28 February 1846 and, after his death, on 6 May 1848. NG 655 may be identified as lot 6 of the first sale of the Collection of chiefIy Italian Pictures of His Excellency Sir Robert Gordon, G.C.B., formed during a Residence in Italy; many of which have appeared in the Exhibitions of the British Institution. It was described as ‘LUPPINI [for Luini], A LADY READING A BOOK’ and was sold for £15 to Morant: evidently George Morant (1770–1846), interior decorator, upholsterer, frame-maker and dealer, established at 91 New Bond Street. The painting passed to Granville John Penn (1802–1867) of Stoke Court, Buckinghamshire. On the reverse is written 829A, the Christie’s mark for the sale of pictures from Stoke Court on 10 July 1851. NG 655 was lot 11 and was sold for 13 guineas (£13 13s.) to Nieuwenhuys: the dealer Christian John Nieuwenhuys (1799–1883) of Brussels and London. It was probably he who sold it to the Paris collector Edmond Beaucousin (1806–1866). NG 655 was purchased with the rest of the Beaucousin collection in 1860.