View of Toledo

View of Toledo is one of only two surviving pure landscapes painted by El Greco, making it extraordinary both within his output and in the history of Spanish art, where landscape as an independent subject was virtually unknown in this period. El Greco — born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Crete around 1541 — settled in Toledo by 1577 and remained there until his death in 1614. The painting is thought to have been commissioned by Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, a Toledo historian and close patron of El Greco; scholars Jonathan Brown and Richard Kagan have shown that the city's landmarks are deliberately rearranged, suggesting El Greco aimed to paint an idealized vision of Toledo rather than its literal topography. The painting descended through several Spanish noble families before being sold to the dealer Durand-Ruel in 1907; Louisine Havemeyer acquired it shortly after and bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929 as part of one of the greatest private gifts in the museum's history.