GUSTAVE COURBET | PORTRAIT PRÉSUMÉ DE TONY MARLET

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 28, 1882, lot 15 

Juliette Courbet, Paris (sister of the artist, acquired at the above sale) 

Baron Denys Cochin, Paris 

Sale: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, July 9, 1919, lot 17 

Galerie Barbazanges, Paris (acquired at the above sale) 

Dr. Lucas Lichtenhahn, Basel, Switzerland 

Baumgartner (and sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 16, 1960, lot 70, illustrated) 

Knoedler & Co., New York, no. A7524 (acquired at the above sale in joint ownership with Galerie des Arts Anciens) 

Acquired in Japan in 1994 

Paul Eudel, L'Hôtel Drouot et la Curiosité en 1882, Paris, 1883, vol. II, p. 419 

Robert Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Lausanne and Paris, 1978, vol. I, p. 74, no. 120, illustrated p. 75 

Pierre Courthion, L'opera completa di Courbet, Milan, 1985, p. 79, no. 114, illustrated

Pierre Courthion, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Courbet, Paris, 1987, p. 79, no. 114, illustrated p. 78

Jean-Jacques Fernier, Jean-Luc Mayaud, and Patrick Le Noüene, Courbet et Ornans, Paris, 1989, p. 46, illustrated 

Painted in 1851, the present lot is believed to be a portrait of Antonine-François (Tony) Marlet. Marlet was a native of Ornans, Courbet’s hometown, and a close childhood friend of the artist along with his brother Adolphe Marlet, who the artist also painted the same year. Tony Marlet is thought to be one of the mourners in Courbet’s masterpiece Un enterrement à Ornans (1849, Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

We would like to thank the Association des Amis de Gustave Courbet at the Institut Gustave Courbet, Ornans for kindly authenticating this work, which will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné based on the work of Robert and Jean-Jacques Fernier.