#provenancepeek

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: De Hooch at the Getty

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

Not as well known to the casual art lover as his more famous contemporary Jan Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch was a Dutch Golden Age painter, a member of the Delft Guild, and a master of genre painting.

Genre paintings are scenes of everyday life featuring ordinary people engaged in ordinary activities such as letter writing or laundry. They were usually small, making them more affordable than the large, dramatic Baroque paintings of the prior century.

This painting, A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy, shows the style for which de Hooch was known—a stream of natural light illuminating a small interior, complete with beautiful details such as the latch on the door at left and variations in the paved stone floor. Its small size, 27 by 21 inches, made it perfect for hanging in an interior much like the one shown in the painting.

From Holland to New York

If we peek into the provenance of this work, we see that it remained in Dutch collections until the mid-19th century when it was sold as part of the Verstolk van Soelen collection. A group of British collectors stepped in to purchase that collection, and this painting along with it.

A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy continued down ancestral lines for 50 years until it was snapped up by George A. Drummond, a Scottish-born sugar magnate and well-known art collector who helped transform the once-provincial town of Montreal into a bustling metropolis. The painting remained in the Drummond family until George’s second wife, Lady Julia Drummond, sold it at Christie’s, along with many other works from the collection.

That’s how the focus of this #ProvenancePeek series, the Knoedler Gallery of New York, came into possession of the work. Knoedler, along with Henry Reinhardt, another prominent American dealer, purchased 14 works from the Drummond sale at Christie’s in June 1919. Two of those, stock number 14754, a landscape by J.M.W. Turner, and stock number 14760, a depiction of a ballet dancer by French artist Jean-Louis Forain, are both in American public collections (Yale Center for British Art and The Clark, respectively). But the de Hooch still had a way to go before arriving at its present location, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s East Pavilion.

Before coming to the Getty, this de Hooch’s first destination in the U.S. was Pittsburgh, where it joined the illustrious collection of Andrew W. Mellon. Mellon purchased the work from Knoedler for nearly double what Knoedler and Reinhardt had paid for it, snapping it up immediately after it entered into stock. However, unlike the rest of Mellon’s collection, this painting was not part of his bequest that formed the National Gallery of Art. Instead, he sold the de Hooch less than ten years later…and back it went to Europe.

…And from New York to London to L.A.

At this point, the de Hooch’s travels were nearly done, but it still needed to enter into another great collector’s inventory before coming to the Getty. Baron Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, purchased the painting from German dealer Julius Böhler in 1929, and willed it to his daughter Gabrielle, who became the second to final owner in 1947. When she put the painting up for sale in the early 1980s via a London gallery, the J. Paul Getty Museum seized its chance. A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy is now part of the Getty’s permanent collection and is on view every day at the Getty Center, Museum East Pavilion, Gallery E204.

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database, which anyone can query for free. You can find this painting by typing “14755” into the Stock Number query box.

A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy, about 1660–63, Pieter de Hooch. Oil on canvas, 27 x 21 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 84.PA.47. Pages from the stock and sales books of the Knoedler Gallery. The Getty Research Institute.

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute. This is the final post in the series, but the joy of peeking into provenance continues through the daily effort of the Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance editors. If you’re interested in learning more, visit the department’s page on Getty.edu.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: Alexander Hamilton

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”

This bust of one of America’s Founding Fathers (and the subject of the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton) dates to 1794, near the end of Hamilton’s tenure as first secretary of the Treasury.

Hamilton was born out of wedlock in the West Indies. He impressed his first employer so much that in the 1770s funds were raised to send him to America, where he studied at what is now Columbia University. Revolution was brewing, and Hamilton was so swayed by the patriots’ cause that he began writing treatises against the Crown. When the fighting began he dropped out of school, joined the Continental Army and saw action around New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Hamilton rose through the ranks on his smarts and determination and eventually attracted the attention of George Washington, who brought him into his inner circle. From there his career as a statesman, lawyer, writer, and central figure in the creation of a strong, fiscally sound America is history...or is it?

Part of the success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical is its focus on historiography and legacy, how we understand and remember the past. For many years, Hamilton’s sensational death overshadowed his achievements, and Aaron Burr went down in history as the man who shot him. But what really happened, as the musical reminds us, is much more than that. This bust of Hamilton, now at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, shows Hamilton as a symbol of the newly formed democracy. Bare-chested, wearing the ribbon of the Order of the Cincinnati (a patriotic society), Hamilton is an imposing symbol of liberty.

Taking inspiration from ancient Roman busts, sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi modeled Hamilton realistically, detailing his prominent nose, jowled cheeks, and wavy hair. By representing him in a Neoclassical style, the artist aligned Hamilton and the nascent country with the great republics of the past. Ceracchi was well known for this style, though it later failed him. Returning to Europe shortly after this bust was completed, the sculptor became embroiled in French politics, initially siding with Napoleon but later turning against him. He was executed by guillotine in 1801.

There are several versions of this Ceracchi bust of Hamilton, as well as copies. The most famous, now at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, was used extensively as a basis for posthumous portraits (notably, the Trumbull portrait, also at the National Portrait Gallery), a stamp from the 1870s, and perhaps the most well-known and fitting representation, his image on the U.S. $10 bill.

This bust entered the inventory of influential New York gallery M. Knoedler and Co. via John Levy, another New York dealer who frequently traded with Knoedler. “A5437,” the bust’s stock book number, shows up twice in the searchable database of the Knoedler records created and maintained by the Getty Research Institute’s Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance. The first time around, it didn’t sell. The next time, in May 1966, it sold directly to the Smithsonian. Interestingly, another bust of the same sitter appears in the records, sold to the Gilcrease Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

With so many museum collections digitized, seeing one of these portraits of Hamilton is a lot easier than getting tickets to the show.

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database which anyone can query for free. You can find this bust under number A5437, or by searching the keywords “Alexander Hamilton.”

Alexander Hamilton, 1794, Giuseppe Ceracchi. Marble, 22 ¾ in. high. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: Titian in Boston

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Book, in the collection of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, is no exception. The MFA carefully details the painting’s Italian provenance on its collection page, but the path of this object even since then is complex.

Between 1901 and 1907, Portrait of a Man Holding a Book entered the stock of no less than three galleries, purchased from the Italian family who owned it first by Agnew’s in London, then by Trotti in Paris, and then by Cottier in New York (marking its movement from the Old World to the New). A collector purchased it from Cottier, and the painting was held privately for 36 years.

That collector was Frederick Bayley Pratt (1865–1945), son of Charles Pratt, oil magnate and founder of the Brooklyn Institute that bears his family’s name (incidentally, this writer’s alma mater!). 

The Knoedler Gallery dealt frequently with members of the Pratt family. A quick peek into the searchable database of Knoedler’s stock books turns up nine instances in which a Pratt (Charles and Mary, Frederick’s parents, or Herbert and John, his brothers) bought works, as well as five instances where they sold works. This Titian portrait is one of those instances. Frederick Pratt sold the work to Knoedler in early April of 1943, and by the 10th, it had been snapped up by the Museum of Fine Arts.

Knoedler shared the sale with Pinakos, an art-dealing concern owned and operated by Rudolf J. Heinemann. Purchasing works in tandem with other dealers was a widespread practice amongst powerful art galleries of the time; nearly 6,000 records in the Knoedler database had joint ownership.

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database that anyone can query for free. You can find this Titian under stock number A2555.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Book, about 1540, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio). Oil on canvas. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles Potter Kling Fund. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; stock and sales books documenting the painting's sale by M. Knoedler & Co.

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archive at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: Summer in Denver

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance. 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a Milanese artist of the Mannerist period. His anthropomorphic creations combine exotic and commonplace objects from the natural world into whimsical and unusual paintings like this one. Arcimboldo was far from an artistic outsider, though—his unorthodox approach was highly valued by his patrons, the Habsburg family, and he worked for their courts in Vienna and Prague. 

Arcimboldo’s best-known work is probably his Four Seasons series. Many versions of these paintings survive, though often not in complete sets. The Denver Art Museum happens to have two, Summer and Autumn. Though they were incorporated into the museum’s collection some 30 years apart, they share the same provenance: the Bridel-Boiceau collection in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Peeking into the stock books database of M. Knoedler and Co. at the Getty Research Institute, we see an entry from March 1960 for two paintings by Arcimboldo, sold by a “Mr. Bridel, 1 av. du Theatre, Lausanne, Switz.”

The works were given the stock numbers A7539 and A7540, respectively. A7539 (Summer) was sold, just slightly less than one year later, directly to the Denver Art Museum. The path of A7540 (Autumn) to Denver is slightly more complex, but it, too, joined the collection when it was gifted to the museum in 2009.

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database, which anyone can search for free.

Summer, 1572, Guiseppe Arcimboldo. Oil on canvas, 36 x 27 3/4 in. Denver Art Museum; funds from Helen Dill bequest, 1961.56. Below: pages from the stock and sales books of M. Knoedler & Co.

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: A Cassatt for Brooklyn

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

Mary Cassatt was technically American (born and raised in Pennsylvania), but she spent most of her life working in France, moving there at 22 and only briefly returning to the U.S. during her lifetime. Cassatt was taught by masters including Jean-Léon Gérôme and Edgar Degas, and she excelled in many mediums, from oils to pastels and engravings. 

One of Cassatt’s frequent subjects was the bond between mother and child. Woman in a Red Bodice and Her Child depicts an intimate moment when a young mother holds her child in an embrace. The mother’s face, reflected in the mirror at upper right, seems caught in meditation. 

A look into the Knoedler Archive at the Getty Research Institute reveals that this painting has been in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art since 1919, when it was called the Brooklyn Institute of Art and Sciences. The Knoedler Gallery acquired it from the American Art Association at a large painting sale (this work was lot 71 and is listed under its French title, Femme au corsage rouge et enfant) in January 1919. Almost immediately, the museum purchased the work using funds gifted to them by Carll H. de Silver, a Brooklynite, former New York State Commissioner of Charities, and stockbroker who was also vice president and trustee of the Institute. The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database that anyone can query for free.

Woman in a Red Bodice and Her Child, ca. 1901, Mary Cassatt. Carll H. de Silver Fund. The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Stock and sales pages from the Knoedler Gallery Archive, The Getty Research Institute

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into #onthisday provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: Shark Attack!

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

This dynamic painting of a 1749 shark attack in Havana, Cuba, by John Singleton Copley was too good to paint only once. The original hangs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. A second full-sized version of the painting, which Copley created for himself, was inherited by his son and eventually gifted to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The third version (shown here) is slightly reduced in size, with a more vertical composition. It resides in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

A quick peek into the digitized stock and sales books of art dealer M. Knoedler & Co. at the Getty Research Institute shows the sale of Copley’s masterpiece. It was entered under stock number A3531 in July 1946 and noted as being sold to the Gallery by Robert Lebel, a French writer and art expert. The Knoedler clerk also carefully records the dimensions of the painting—30 ¼ x 36 inches, unframed.

On the right side of the sales page you’ll find the purchaser listed as none other than the Detroit Institute of Arts. The corresponding sales book page gives the address: Woodward Ave, Detroit, Mich., still the location of the museum.

Watson and the Shark, 1782, John Singleton Copley. Detroit Institute of Arts

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into #onthisday provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: Winslow Homer at the Met

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance.

The provenance of this Winslow Homer marine, or seascape, is relatively straightforward as these things go. It was entered into the stock books of M. Knoedler and Co, prominent New York art dealers, in October of 1901. Knoedler & Co purchased the painting, titled Cannon Rock, from Chicago pastor and educator Dr. Frank Gunsaulus on October 24, 1901. Just over two weeks later, on November 9, the firm sold it to art collector and dry goods merchant George Arnold Hearn. Hearn made a gift of his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1906, and that is where Cannon Rock has lived ever since.

This seascape is one of Homer’s later works, notable for its flatness. Homer spent the last 25 years of his life living in coastal Maine, painting land- and seascapes that both respect and challenge nature’s authority. Cannon Rock’s mellow provenance tale belies the powerful scene it presents.

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been transformed into a searchable database which anyone can query for free.

Cannon Rock, 1895, Winslow Homer. Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of George A. Hearn, 1906 (above); pages from the Knoedler stock and sales books listing the painting (below).

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into #onthisday provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.

[thegetty]

#ProvenancePeek: A Pre-Impressionist Garden Party

Every art object has a story—not only of how it was made, but of how it changed hands over time until it found its current home. That story is provenance. 

Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli might not be as well known as some of our previous #ProvenancePeek artists, but he has his own claim to fame. Monticelli was born in the southern French town of Marseille and lived in Paris, studying under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts and befriending the young Narcisse Diaz, whom he accompanied on trips to the Fontainebleau Forest, home of the Barbizon School of painters. 

Monticelli’s work prefigured Impressionism. His loose, painterly style was admired by artists such as Van Gogh and Cézanne, and his heavy use of impasto set him apart from his contemporaries. In this fête champêtre, or garden party, his figures emerge from the darkness in groups of two or three, the melancholic looks on their faces belying the festive title. 

This painting was purchased by the Phillips Memorial Gallery from M. Knoedler & Co. in October 1922. The Phillips Memorial, now known as the Phillips Collection, is one of the great impressionist and modern art museums in the country. Pictured here are pages from the stock and sale books in the Knoedler archives at the Getty Research Institute, which track the painting’s inventory and sale. 

The stock books of the Knoedler Gallery have recently been digitized and transformed into a searchable database, which anyone can query for free. 

Fête Champêtre, not dated, Adolphe Monticelli (1824–1886). Oil on wood panel, 9 ⅛ x 12 ⅞ in. Acquired 1922. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

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#ProvenancePeek is a monthly series by research assistant Kelly Davis peeking into #onthisday provenance finds from the M. Knoedler & Co. archives at the Getty Research Institute.