Lot description
Segunda Conversación con RVR (Rembrandt Van Rijn) signed and dated 1965 (lower right and verso) and inscribed "#65-26 SEGUNDA CONVERSACIÓN CON RVR Junio 1965" (verso) oil on canvas 39 1/2" x 39 1/2" (100 cm x 100 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired by Lucien Nedzi, former Chairman of the US House Intelligence and Administration Committees and Congressional Joint Library Committee, from Juana N. de Mordo, owner of Madrid's Galeria Juana Mordo, in December 1965 LITERATURE DE LA TORRE, Alfonso (Director). In collaboration with Rafael Pérez-Madero. Fernando Zóbel. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (1946-1984)-Catálogo Razonado de Pinturas de Fernando Zóbel (1946- 1984). Madrid-Manila: Fundación Azcona, Fundación Juan March, Ayala Foundation and Fernando Zóbel Heirs, 2023. Nº cat. 65-26, p. 313. The journey of a masterpiece is rarely in a straight line. This magnificent punctuation to a running conversation that the Filipino-Spanish artist Fernando Zóbel would have with Rembrandt in the august halls of the Museo del Prado in Madrid is just one such example. This magical dialogue would next move to his first Spanish gallerist, the influential Juana Mordo. (His first show in Spain was actually at her gallery in 1959.) It would end in the possession of the Honorable Lucien Norbert Nedzi, lawmaker and Democratic congressman, perhaps one of the US Congress’ most beloved, serving for a record ten terms or 20 years. Nedzi was a spy master, over-seeing the Central Intelligence Agency, on behalf of the House; but was also a civil rights advocate and an anti-Vietnam War spokesperson. He was also interestingly an infantry man in the Philippines in World War II, bringing him full circle to his common roots with Zóbel.
