Marie-François Firmin-Girard

Knoedler & Co., Paris, no. 1987 (acquired directly from the artist, September 1879, as Noce au XVIII Siecle)
Robert Graham Dun, New York (acquired from the above, November 1879, and bequeathed to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 10, 1900)
Pick Galleries, Inc., Winnetka, Illinois
Walter L. Marr III, Northbrook, Illinois (acquired from the above, August 1965)
Thence by descent 

Paris, Salon des Artistes Français, 1879, no. 1375

La Jeune France, Paris, 1879-80, p. 65
"Salon de 1879," La Presse, 1879, p. 3
Arthur Baignères, "Le Salon de 1879," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 20, Paris, 1879, p. 35
Le Temps, Paris, June 11, 1879, n.p. 
Ernest d’Hervilly, "Ouverture du Salon," Le Rappel, no. 3350, 1879, p. 2
M. Dillard, "Chronique," L’Union littéraire, no. 14, sixth year, 1879, p. 212
F.G. Dumas, Catalogue illustré du Salon, Paris, Baschet, 1879, p. 60, illustrated p. 65
Théodore Véron, Dictionnaire Véron […] Le Salon de 1879, Paris, 1879, p. 259
Eugene Montrosier, Les Artistes Modernes, Premiere Partie, Les Peintres de Genre, Paris, 1881, p. 31
John Denison Champlin, Jr., ed., Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, New York, 1887, vol. II, p. 144
Edward Strahan, ed., The Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, 1977, facsimile edition, vol. III, p. 118-125 (as A Wedding in the Eighteenth Century)
Paul Girard, Firmin-Girard, par son petit-fils, Orléans, 1988, p. 24, no. 53, the incorrect work illustrated p. 55 

This work has an old lining. The surface is clean and stable. Under UV: an old varnish fluoresces green with no apparent retouches.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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By 1879, Marie-François Firmin-Girard was at the height of his popularity with his paintings of the beau monde of Paris.  Yet the artist never lost his love of history painting, instilled at a young age by his training in the workshops of Charles Gleyre and Jean-Léon Gérôme.  His first major success in the Salon was 1874’s Les fiancés (sold in these rooms May 18, 2016, lot 69) which, like Noces au XVIIIème siècle, features a young couple dressed in Louis XIII period costume.

The present work was exhibited the 1879 Salon and its apparent popularity is confirmed by the existence of two smaller variants. Soon after the close of the Salon, the present work was acquired by Knoedler & Co., a powerful promoter of Firmin-Girard’s career in Europe and America.  A month later the painting was sold to New York industrialist Robert Graham Dun, an avid art collector whose bequest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art consisted of twenty five paintings, including Charles-François Daubigny’s The Hamlet of Optevoz (circa 1852) and Théodore Rousseau’s A Meadow Bordered by Trees (circa 1845).