Provenance
The artist's studio; acquired c. 1823 by Charles William Stewart (later Vane), 3rd marquess of Londonderry [1778-1854], Londonderry House, London;[1] by inheritance to his son, Frederick William Robert Vane, 4th marquess of Londonderry [1805-1872], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his half-brother, George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th marquess of Londonderry [1821-1884], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th marquess of Londonderry [1852-1915]; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th marquess of Londonderry [1878-1949], Londonderry House; his estate; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1962, no. 34); purchased by M. Comer for Lillian R. Berkman [Mrs. Jack N. Berkman, formerly Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman, 1922-2001], New York; her estate; bequest 2003 to NGA.
Text is from the online catalog of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. After more than a century in a private house in London, Canova's recumbent neoclassical lady looks serene enough. All the same it must be a rude adjustment, suddenly transported to America and exposed to the innumerable speculative gazes of the general public. At bottom, the empty-eyed face of the lion skin on which the naiad reclines.