PROVENANCE: King Louis Philippe, sold at the Louis Philippe Sale, Christie's, London , 1853, lot 156, to Cherry; Christie's, July 21, 1924 , lot 123, to Farr; R. Langton Douglas, London; Julius Weitzner, London , 1953; BJU, 1953.

Francisco de Zurbarán was one of Spain's greatest painters in the Golden Age of the 17th century. After settling in Seville, he became famous for his numerous religious paintings commissioned by the town's monastic orders and churches. For example, he completed four canvases from a series of eight for the newly constructed church in the College of San Buenaventura in Seville . The series, begun by his rival Francisco de Herrera, the Elder, illustrates the life of St. Bonaventure. Zurbarán's art represents the best native Spanish reaction to the tenebrist style of Caravaggio. However, the public preferred the softer style of Murillo during Zurbarán's later years, forcing him to earn a living by exporting many works to the New World.

This beautiful Annunication is the second version Zurbarán painted after the prototype commissioned for the Carthusians of Jerez (now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble ). Critics consider it to be both the pinnacle and end of his career as a monastic painter. The highly devotional and pietistic presence of the work represents the artist's interpretation of the scene as described by Francisco Pacheco (Spanish painter and writer contemporary with Zurbarán) in his Arte de la pintura. Pacheco advised that Mary be portrayed as a beautiful 14-year-old kneeling before a bench holding an open book with a kneeling angel nearby. He also stipulated the color of her clothes as well as the angel's appearance and the inclusion of seraphim, angels, and the Holy Spirit as a dove at the top. Pacheco even speculated that when evening came and Mary had finished her handiwork, she left it in a basket on the ground. A comparison of painting and text leaves no doubt as to its inspiration. The intimately domestic detail of the workbasket showcases one of Zurbarán's trademark still-life elements found in his religious works.