Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born on June 2, 1835. He was elected Pope on August 4, 1903 and died on August 20, 1914, aged 81. He was beatified in 1951 and canonised in 1954.
Muller-Ury seems to have received a commission to paint Pope Pius X in 1903 according to the New York Herald, December 6, 1903, but he did not execute one then as he was unable to obtain a sitting, and was expecting to be able to get one ‘on his return to Italy next summer.’ This seems unlikely, and probably he had mentioned his wish to paint the new Pope at some time in a press interview. He finally received a commission in 1906/7.
A photograph of Muller-Ury’s portrait of Pope Pius X with his inscription below. The annotated card at the top is that of Archbishop Kennedy of the North American College.
Muller-Ury with Mrs Walker on a hotel balcony, probably in Paris in the autumn of 1907.
This was the first picture of the Pope which Muller-Ury painted, and was commissioned by the devout Roman Catholic Mrs. Anne M. Weightman Walker – from whom he was to get several commissions for portraits – who lived at a mansion called Ravenhill in Philadelphia. Muller-Ury is recorded in Rome from May 18, 1907 and began work on the portrait the day after an audience with the Pope on May 21; Muller-Ury had six sittings (the New York Herald, December 27, 1908 says nine, which seems inaccurate) from the Pope, which took place in the Vatican Library, though he was given the entrée to his audience chambers at all times. Muller-Ury finished the work by June 30, and at a private audience at 11.15 a.m. on that day the Pope gave the artist a gold medal (third year of reign) and autographed photograph of the picture, which said:
‘Al diletto figlio Adolfo Müller-Ury col voto che nel suo lavoro abbiada consegnire ottimi successi, in segno di gratitudine e di benevolenza, impartiamo di cuore l’apostolica benedizione. Dal Vaticano le 30 Guigno 1907. Pius P.P. X.’
The artist left Rome on July 6. In the autumn of 1907, after a summer holiday in Switzerland with his family, and with his portrait of the Pope completed, he was admitted by dealer Joseph Duveen with Mrs. Walker at 11.45am on October 15 to view the important Rodolphe Kann art collection at the Kann mansion in Paris which Duveen had purchased. (‘Visitors Book’, Duveen Brothers Records, 1876-1981, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Acc. no. 960015, Box 200, microfiche 71, p.28). Duveen was a great friend of the artist and it is not unlikely that she bought a work of art from the Kann collections for Ravenhill with Muller-Ury’s advice.
A contemporary postcard showing the portrait of the Pope in a room at the North American College.
After being exhibited in New York, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, it was returned to Muller-Ury’s New York studio, where on March 26 or 27, 1908, Archbishop Farley must have seen it (letter from James Lewis from the Cardinal’s residence dated March 24, 1908 in the artist’s papers). The picture was officially presented to the Pope on behalf of the North American College by Monsignor Kennedy on July 12, 1908, but the Pope said that he preferred the picture remain at the College as a memento of his audience that day with the students of the college who had presented their congratulations and $1,000 as well as the portrait on the occasion of the papal jubilee. The large sepia photograph taken by Anderson was placed prominently in the window of Spithoever’s bookshop in March 1909 according to a postcard Charles O’Hern sent the artist on March 3 that year (artist’s papers).
