William Bouguereau

Sir William Stephenson, London
Errett Lobban "E. L." Cord, Beverly Hills (circa 1943)
Thence by descent

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has not recently been cleaned. The canvas has a lining applied with wax that should be reversed. If the paint layer were cleaned, the palette would brighten noticeably. This is a late work for the artist, and so there is a brushy quality to the paint layer, which seems to be mostly undamaged. No retouches are clearly visible under ultraviolet light except in the lower left corner, where two sides of a 4 inch square seem to have received retouches. There may be a break or a series of losses here. The condition is good overall, and restoration would certainly make improvements.
"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."

Jeune fille aux raisins marks an exciting discovery in Bouguereau’s oeuvre; unrecorded until today, this is a new addition to the artist’s catalogue raisonné. It is a perfect illustration of Bouguereau’s best-known and most treasured imagery: young peasant children. This model was from La Rochelle and appeared in a number of the artist’s compositions from the period including Petite fille assise brodant (1903, Private Collection), Les Marguerites (1903, Private Collection), and Rêverie (1904, Cummer Museum of Arts and Gardens, Jacksonville). Bouguereau’s artistic ability is evident through the sitter’s expression and warm skin tones, and the varied textures that are convincingly laid down throughout the composition, from the fabric of her dress to her hands holding the grapes, and even the dense woodland behind her.

An early owner of the present lot was Sir William Stephenson, a Canadian soldier, businessman, inventor, spy, and a British intelligence representative during the Second World War, tasked with building a covert British intelligence network throughout the western hemisphere on behalf of the British government and the Allies to aid in winning the war. He was known by his pseudonym, Intrepid, and his friend, author Ian Fleming, allegedly based the character of James Bond on him. Stephenson maintained close relationships with an International coterie of business tycoons, including the American Errett Lobban (E.L.) Cord, who owned New York Shipping, the Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg Automobile Companies, and for his founding of American Airlines. Stephenson and E.L. were well-known for giving each other extravagant gifts, including rare cars and aeroplanes, a miniature horse named “Little Tweeny”, and even the present painting, which sailed to Califronia aboard E.L.’s yacht, The Virginia (fig. 1) (Griffith Borgeson, Errett Lobban Cord: His empire, his motorcars : Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, Pennsylvania, 1984, p. 178)

A Los Angeles native, E.L.’s career began with some evening business classes at the local YMCA, before he became a used car salesmen and grew into an enormously successful entrepreneur. Jeune fille aux raisins hung in the dining room of his Beverly Hills mansion, Cordhaven, designed by Paul R. Williams. Built during the Depression, the Southern Colonial-style, red brick mansion on an eighteen-acre estate at North Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills covered 32,000 square feet, had sixteen bedrooms and twenty-two bathrooms, many of which featured 14 carat gold fixtures (“Million dollar Cord Manor to be razed”, Independent, Long Beach, May 31, 1962, p. 43). While Cordhaven's over-sized neoclassical portico, ballroom, hotel-sized kitchens, underground wine cellar and shooting range were expected features in a Beverly Hills mansion, the planned chicken coop was not. Cord was passionate about raising chickens and his coops reflected the style of the great estate, with brick floors, wood paneling and satin drapes, and his favorite birds reportedly ate and drank from gold dishes.