[Canova] took me to see his last Magdalen, which is divine: she is lying recumbent in all the abandonment of grief; and the expression of her face, and the beauty of her figure . . . are perfection.
This is how the Irish poet Thomas Moore described the last masterpiece of his friend Antonio Canova (1757-1822), which he presented in November 1819 in the form of a plaster model. The sculptor, who was famous during his lifetime, had received the commission a month earlier from the English Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, who was a great friend and collector of art and who also initiated the founding of the National Gallery in London.
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Maddalena Giacente (“Recumbent Magdalene”) is the white marble sculpture which Canova completed in 1822, shortly before his death, and sent to his client in England, as well as a very similar sculpture, The Sleeping Endymion, which was sent to the Duke of Devonshire and is still on display at the Cavendish family's country estate, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
The other masterpiece was not so lucky and, despite its placid name, led an eventful existence. In 1826, Lord Liverpool died and his estates passed to his brother. After he too died, the sculpture was sold at Christie's in 1852, described as "one of Canova's finest and most valuable works." She was then shown at several exhibitions in England. But then, oddly enough, there is no record of where the sculpture went next or who the new owners were.
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When the sculpture was offered again at auction in 1938, it was only referred to in the catalog as a "classic figure." It was purchased by anti-death penalty activist and entrepreneur Violet Van der Elst, who installed it in her garden in Kensington. It remained there until 2002, when it came under the hammer again at a garden decoration auction and ended up with the current owner, who purchased it for just £5,200 ($6,800). In his care, the true identity of the sculpture would now be brought to light.
"It is a miracle that Antonio Canova’s exceptional, long lost masterpiece the ‘Sleeping Magdalene’ has been found, 200 years after its completion," said Dr. Mario Guderzo, leading Canova scholar and former Director of the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova and Museo Biblioteca Archivio di Bassano del Grappa. "This work has been searched for by scholars for decades, so the discovery is of fundamental importance for the history of collecting and the history of art. It testifies to the intensive thought process of the work of the Italian sculptor who was a fundamental witness of his time: faithful to Pope Pius VII, sought after by Napoleon, beloved by the English sovereign George IV, esteemed by the world of European collecting and of critical importance for the restitution of works of art seized under Napoleon."
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170 years after its first auction, Christie's London has the honor of being able to sell Antonio Canova's last masterpiece once again. With an estimate of £5-8m (approx. $6.6-10.5 million), the sculpture will go under the hammer on July 7 as one of the highlights of Classic Week. It could set a new record for Canova, which currently stands at $7 million for Bust of Peace that sold at Sotheby's in 2018.
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