Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

Henri-Michel Lévy;
His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 25 May 1905, lot 24;
There acquired by Eugène Féral, Paris;
Alphonse Kann (1870 - 1948), Paris, by 1909;
With Wildenstein by 1922.

Paris, Exposition rétrospective de la Ville de Paris, 1900, no. 230 ^bis;
Paris, Bagatelle, Portraits de femmes sous les trois Républiques, May 1909, no. 163;
Paris, Petit Palais, Exposition P.-P. Prud'hon, May - June 1922, no. 45;
New York, Wildenstein, Prud'hon, November 1922, no. X;
Cincinnati,  Art Museum, French Art of the Eighteenth Century, 16 February - 16 March 1924, no. 18;
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, 19th Century French Art, 1 - 30 November 1932, no. 48;
New York, World's Fair, Masterpieces of Art, May - October 1940, no. 234;
New York, Wildenstein, Fashion in Headdress: 1450-1943, 27 April - 27 May 1943, no. 74;
New York, Wildenstein, The French Revolution, December 1943, no. 56;
New York, Wildenstein, French Painting of the Eighteenth Century, 21 January - 21 February 1948, no. 35;
São Paulo, Museo de Arte, O retrato na França do Renascimento ao Neoclassicismo, January 1952, no. 21;
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, 15 October - 1 December 1958, no. 77;
Rochester, New York, Memorial Art Gallery, In Focus: A Look at Realism in Art, 28 December 1964 - 31 January 1965, no. 59;
Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Cinco siglos de arte francés, 24 May - 24 June 1977, no. 33;
New York, Wildenstein, The Winds of Revolution, 14 November 1989 - 19 January 1990, no. 104;
Paris, Galeries Nationale du Grand Palais; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur, 23 September 1997 - 6 June 1998, no. 200.

G. Mouray, "Exposition rétrospective de portraits de femmes sous les trois Républiques," in Les Arts, July 1909, p. 28, reproduced p. 30;
G. Saunier, "Les Dessins de Prud'hon," in Renaissance de l'Art Français, May 1922, reproduced p. 306;
J. Guiffrey, L'Oeuvre de P.-P. Prud'hon, Paris 1924 p. 154, no. 415, pp. 250-251, no. 659;
French XVIIIth Century Paintings, New York, Wildenstein 1948, no. 39, reproduced;
Sele Arte, V, No. 25, July - August 1956, reproduced p. 65;
G. Grappe, Prud'hon, Paris 1958, p. 156;
G. Monnier, Musée du Louvre - Cabinet des dessins: pastels XVII^ème et XVIII^ème siècles, Paris 1972, under no. 56;
J. Baillio, The Winds of Revolution, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1989, cat. no. 104, also cited p. 9, reproduced p. 103;
S. Laveissière, Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur, exhibition catalogue, Paris and New York, 1997/98, pp. 277, 280-281, cat. no. 200, reproduced;
A.L. Clark, Jr., "Un grand collectionneur américain de dessins français: Grenville L. Winthrop et les oeuvres de Pierre-Paul Prud'hon au Fogg Art Museum," in Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel le 17 novembre 1997 (S. Laveissière, ed.), Paris 2001, p. 191, note 3.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is lined and has been restored, neither of which seem to be recent endeavors. The varnish on the work is quite thick and discolored. A good deal of yellowness is evident throughout the picture. In the background, although no retouches are visible under ultraviolet light, it seems that at least in the upper left there may have been some augmentation to the palette. This also seems to be evident in the lower background and in places in the right background as well. The condition seems to be more reliable in the head of the figure and the condition seems to be quite healthy in the arm, hands and clothing of the figure. The profile of the shawl on the left side of the chest may have been added to. Despite the fact that retouches will become evident if and when the picture is cleaned, the condition is impressive in many areas and restoration will be beneficial despite the fact that there is some abrasion and the surface is slightly flat.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The sitter in this charming and sensitive portrait was long misidentified as Madame Barbier-Walbonne, née Marie-Philippe Claude Dumont (1763-before 1837), a renowned singer who married an artist named Jacques-Luc Barbier, called Barbier-Walbonne (1769-1860).  However, Sylvain Laveissière has convincingly identified her as the couple's daughter, Luc-Marie-Lavinie, who was born in 1796, four years before their marriage in 1800 (see Exhibited and Literature).  She was approximately nineteen years old when Prud'hon painted her portrait, which has numerous technical and stylistic affinities with the artist's 1816 likeness of Dorothée de Courlande, Duchesse de Dino.¹

In 1816, Lavinie Barbier-Walbonne's portrait was also painted by François Gérard, a friend of her father's.  That work, which portrayed the young woman seated in three-quarter length and wearing a large straw hat, is lost; however, its appearance is known from a published engraving done in 1857, which identifies her as Mlle Barbier-Walbonne.²  Gérard also painted a portrait of Madame Barbier-Walbonne in 1796, which is now in the collection of the Musée du Louvre.

Lavinie married Général Baron Jean Darriule in 1819 and they had a daughter, Fabeleine-Lavinie, the future Comtesse Hallez-Claparède. Baronne Darriule died in 1883.³

 

 

1.  See S. Laveissière, Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur, exhibition catalogue, Paris and New York, 1997/98, p. 280, Fig. 200b.
2.  See Oeuvre du baron François Gérard, vol. 3,  Paris 1957, pl. 108.
3.  For a detailed account of the Barbier-Walbonne family, see H. Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, II, Bern 1978, pp. 414-418.