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Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1851-1855

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1851-1855

No 434 – the sitter in the portrait identified as Mathilde Delebecque, Mme Jules Malou (1812-1899) as per the following entry; location of the portrait remains unknown;

NEW ENTRY – NO 434A – M. Jules Malou (1810-1886) – recent research has uncovered that this portrait was exhibited in Brussels in 1889, lent by the sitter’s widow, Mme Malou; further details about the portrait remain unknown;

No 440 – Clothilde Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha – Sold 19th Century European Art Including Ottomans & Orientalists, Christie’s London, 15 Jun 2005, lot 145, sold £54,000;

No 454 – sitter and further details of the artwork identified – Emil Devrient (1803-1872), as Marquis Posa [from Don Carlos (1787) by Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)];

No 483 – Princess Drucka-Lubicka – note added: while further research is required to confirm identity of the sitter, it is more likely to be Maria Szemioth (1833-1897), who m. 1850 Prince Alexander Drucki-Lubecki (1827-1908), rather than Princess Jadwiga Radziwill (1830-1863), who m. 1859 Prince Edwin Drucki-Lubecki (1828-1901).

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1846-50

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1846-50

No 350 – Duc de Beaufort-Spontin – the portrait was sold at Christie’s Monaco, 3 December 1988, lot 68, $195,322 ; erroneously identified as Portrait en buste d’une petite fille, portent une robe noire à col en dentelle et un chapeau noir à plumes [sic !] ;

No 385 – Baronne Bartholdy – the portrait was sold at Sotheby’s Paris, Tableaux et Dessins du XIXe Siècle, 25 Jun 2008, lot 24, € 312,750 ; erroneously catalogued as Portrait de la Baronne Henri Hottinguer, née Caroline Delessert ;

No 388 – Mme Delessert – sold at Sotheby’s Paris, Tableaux et Dessins du XIXe Siècle, 25 Jun 2008, lot 25; € 90,750.

MAJOR UPDATES: Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1840-45

MAJOR UPDATES: André Portraits by Franz Xaver and Hermann Winterhalter

No 277 – portraits of Edouard André (1833-94); and Jean André (1794-1850) – I acknowledge that the authorship of both portraits is disputed; and that both portraits are also ascribed to Hermann Winterhalter. The matter is complicated by the fact that members of the André family were painted by both Franz Xaver and Hermann Winterhalter.

Whereas the portraits of Edouard André father, Ernest André (1803-64, no 275) and step-mother, Louise Gudin, Mme André (1806-73, no 276), are clearly signed by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, no 277 is only known from a copy (note that in numerous Musée Jacquemart-André guides, all three portraits are erroneously identified as being by Hermann Winterhalter). Furthermore, Wild records childhood portraits of Edouard André by Hermann (q.v. no. 1) rather than Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

No 277a has been variously ascribed as a portrait of Jean André (1794-1850) or Louis-Eugène André (1800-1861), and as being by Franz Xaver or Hermann Winterhalter respectively. Once again, Wild does not list either of the sitters on Franz Xaver’s list, but enters Mr. Louis André on Hermann Winterhalter’s list.

Clearly, further research is required for both portraits. Therefore, for the time being, nos 277 and 277a are left on Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s list with the note about disputed authorship. Both portraits are also entered on Hermann Winterhalter’s list (q.v. nos 1 and 85 respectively).

Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil

In a recent email from a fellow researcher, I was alerted to the incongruity of no 303, Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, which was dated from around the middle of the 1840s.

The earlier provenance of this work is unknown. It appeared at Sotheby’s Zürich, Europäische Malerei und Moderne und Zeitgenössische Druckgraphik, 25.09.2000, lot 110, unsigned and undated, as a portrait of Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It was initially entered it into my catalogue as such.

Further research revealed that a portrait of Don Pedro, Kaiser von Brasilien was mentioned by Wild as work by Hermann Winterhalter, rather than Franz Xaver, with a possibility of it being drawn in Karlsruhe.

On the basis of the image, the Emperor looks like he is in his 50s. This would mean that the portrait is definitely not from the 1840s, but probably dates from the 1870s. This would also coincide with the fact that Pedro II was in Europe and visited Germany between 1871 and 1872, and then again between 1876 and 1877. I have not been able to find out yet exact dates of his presence in Germany, and / or especially in Karlsruhe, where both Franz Xaver and Hermann lived at the time.

Purely on the basis of the image, I believe a correct date for the drawing should be around 1876-77, when the Emperor would have been in about 50-52 years old (this also corresponds with contemporaneous photographs of the Emperor taken around this time). Thus this could only be a work by Hermann Winterhalter, as Franz Xaver died in 1873.

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1840-45

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1840-45

Following updates had been made on the above-mentioned webpage:

No 191a – Portrait of François Bouchot – the actual location of this drawing is currently unknown; the work is known from a lithograph by Emile Lassalle, c. 1841-2, at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (inv. Est. 5326);

Nos 201a and 201b – these portrait drawings were sold at L’Empire à Fontainebleau, Osenat, Fontainebleau, 2.12.2007, lot 446, pair € 2,000;

No 228 – Portrait of Baronne Mathilde de Bussière – the following note added: Franz Wild’s reference to the portrait is presumably Mlle Hagermann, Paris, jusqu’aux genoux, 1843. By the time the portrait was painted, Mathilde Hagermann was already married (in 1839) to Alfred Rénouard de Bussière. It is possible that the portrait actually represents her sister, Mlle Adèle Anna Hagermann (1825-1898), who m. 1846 Comte Jacques Robert de Pourtalès (1821-74);

No 236a – Feodora Fürstin zu Hohenlohe- Langenburg (1807-1872) – appeared at Doyle New York, Modern & Contemporary and European & American Art, 22 May 2007, lot 1026;

No 266 – Portrait of a Lady – the portrait was sold at Christie’s London, Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, 9 Dec 2009, lot 195, £61,250;

No 280a – Portrait de Comte de Paris – Succession de feus Mgr le Comte & Mme la Comtesse de Paris, Christie’s Paris, 14 Oct 2008, lot 316, sold € 108,500;

No 302 – Alexander Herzog von Wurttemberg – Knaupp, Frühjahrsauktion, 14-16 May 2009, no 1623, sold € 14,000.

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1836-1840

Monday, 25 June 2012

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1836-1840

Following updates had been made on the above-mentioned webpage:

No 107 – L’Amour Maternel – the painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1836, no 1852;

No 108 – Un Chien Epagnuel – the painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1836, no 1853;

No 109 – Principe di Cimitile di San Severino – engraved c.1838 by Charles Eden Wagstaff (c.1798-1850);

No 111a – Italienerin mit Kind – the painting was recently sold at Christie’s New York, 19th Century European and Orientalist Art, 12 April 2007, lot 117, $180,000;

No 111c – Study of a Seated Beggar Girl – image added (courtesy of Michael Venator);

Nos 112 and 113 – sitters identified as Antuanetta Petrovna Lazareva, née HSH Antoinette von Biron, Prinzessin von Kurland (1813-82), and her eldest daughter, Daria Lazarevna Lazareva, later Marquise Venance d’Abzac de Mayac (1835-); location of both portraits remains unknown;

No 124 – M. Dubois d’Angers – image added, but please note that the authorship of the painting is not confirmed; appeared at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Estampes, Tableaux et Dessins Ancienne et Moderne, Extrême-Orient, 24 Jun 2009, lot 44;

No 141 – Jeune Fille de l’Ariccia – sold at Sotheby’s New York, 23 October 1997, lot 109, $1,762,500; second highest price paid for a work by Franz Xaver Winterhalter;

No 143 – Anne, Comtesse de Plaisance (1815-1878), later Duchesse de Plaisance, née Mlle Bertier de Wagram – image added;

No 148 – Portrait of an Elderly Lady – appeared at Christie’s London, Fine Continental Pictures of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, 11 February 1977, lot 70;

No 156 – Portrait of the Duc d’Aumale – recent research indicated that the portrait may have been among the works destroyed by revolutionary crowds at the Palais des Tuileries in February 1848;

No 171 – Louis-Philippe, Duc de Chartres, à Reichenau – the portrait is based on a detail from a painting by Auguste Couder (1789, London – 1873, Paris), Une leçon de géographie au collège de Raichenau (Mgr le Duc d’Orléans), exhibited at the 1819 Salon (no 242), untraced since 1848;

No 183 – Portrait de Fillette à la Rose – the present work could be a portrait of either Mlle Audenet [149] or one of the de Rigny sisters [160].

No 184 – Freiin von Eichthal with her Son – the portrait is dated around the 1840s on stylistic grounds; identity of the sitters is unknown, as in the early 1840s there several women with young sons in the Eichthal family.

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1831-1835

Monday, 25 June 2012

Catalogue Updates – Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1831-1835

Following updates had been made on the above-mentioned webpage:

No 83 – Roman Genre Scene – the painting was lithographed by Léon Noël;

No 93 – the title updated to Freiherr von Herring; present location unknown; the work was previously in the Murray Adams-Acton Collection, c. 1930s;

No 99c – Friedrich Stammann – the sitter’s dates were identified as 1807-1880;

No 103 – Mlle Planat de la Faye – this portrait was presumably exhibited at Salon 1835, no 2166;

No 104 – Children of Baron von Schweitzer – the painting was recently sold at Pierre Bergé & Associés, Paris, 26 Nov 2008, € 32,000; the identity of the children remains unknown;

No 105 – the painting is mentioned in Wild 1894 as Le Comte Tascher de Lapagerie, 1835 [sic]; the sitter is difficult to identify, as there were a number of counts de Tascher de La Pagerie living at that time in Paris: two of the most likely sitters are Jean, Comte de Tascher de La Pagerie (1779-1858) or Louis, Comte de Tascher de La Pagerie (1787-1861);

No 106 – Portrait of a Seated Lady – the drawing was recently sold by Christie’s South Kensington, Old Master Pictures & Drawings, 12.12.2003, lot 568, £ 1,410.

Works by Hermann Winterhalter at the Salon 1838-1869

Works by Hermann Winterhalter at the Salon

While my previous browsing of Salon livrets focused purely on works by and after Franz Xaver Winterhalter, I set aside a bit of time to research the works by (and after) Hermann Winterhalter that were also shown at this premier Parisian exhibition event.

The results were quite surprising, as the first work by Hermann Winterhalter to be shown in Paris appeared at the Salon of 1838. Most Winterhalter scholars hitherto maintained that Hermann Winterhalter joined his brother in Paris in 1840, the event which was allegedly commemorated by a double portrait of the two brothers (1840, oil on canvas, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlruhe; FXW cat no 166); followed shortly by another joint double portrait in watercolours (1841, watercolour, Private Collection; FXW cat no 186).

The Salon livret on the other hand indicates that Hermann Winterhalter exhibited at the Salon two years prior to what was believed to be the date of his first arrival in Paris. The Salon exhibitions admitted works by foreign artists, and the Salon livret indicated if an artist was domiciled abroad. In the case of Hermann Winterhalter, the catalogues of 1838 and 1839 exhibitions clearly state that he lived in Paris, where his address (or at the very least his studio address) is listed as 34 rue de Lille and 15 rue des Petits-Augustins respectively. Most remarkably, these addresses differ from those given for Franz Xaver Winterhalter: this suggests that Hermann lived (and worked?) separately from his brother (although Franz Xaver occupied 15 rue des Petits-Augustins from 1836 to 1837). Separate addresses for both brothers continue being recorded in the Salon livrets until 1869, the last year of Hermann’s exhibition.

Hermann Winterhalter was represented at the Salon annually by single works from 1838 to 1841. He exhibited another work in 1844, Portraits des enfants de Mme la vicomtesse de B… (1798), for which he received 3^rd Class Medal; and two more paintings were exhibited in 1847. This was the last appearance of his works for twenty two years, after which Hermann exhibited only once more, in 1869, when he showed two portraits (2426 and 2427). Further research is required to ascertain if any of Hermann Winterhalter’s submissions to the Salon were ever rejected by the jury.

Sadly, apart from Femme importunée par une guêpe, shown at the Salon of 1847 (1633), it is difficult to attribute any other of Hermann’s currently known works as his Salon pieces.

Summary of Hermann Winterhalter’s works at the Paris Salon between 1838 and 1869 (with the numbers of corresponding entries on the Hermann Winterhalter Catalogue page given in square brackets) is as follows: Salon 1838: #1800. Tête de Femme; étude [101a]; Salon 1839: #2131. Tête d’étude [101b]; Salon 1840: #1663. Jeune fille avec des fleurs [101c]; Salon 1841: #2019. Une conversation de jeunes femmes [101d]; Salon 1844: #1798. Portraits des enfants de Mme la vicomtesse de B… [108a]; Salon 1847: #1633. Femme importunée par une guêpe [112]; #1634. Tête de femme [112a]; Salon 1869 : #2426. Portrait de femme [131a]; #2427. Portrait d’homme [131b].

During this time, his addresses are given as 34 rue de Lille (1838); 15 rue des Petits-Augustins (1839-41); 5 rue Bergère (1844-47); and 11 Boulevard Clichy (1869). Apart from his own works, a lithograph by Alphonse-Léon Noël after Hermann’s painting known only as Les Deux Soeurs was shown at the Salon of 1842 (2119); and an engraving by Auguste-Adrien Jouannin after Betty was shown at the Salon of 1861 (3770).

Dresden Portrait Re-Identified as a ‘Lost’ portrait of Augusta Großherzogin von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1822-1916)

Dresden Portrait Re-Identified as Winterhalter’s ‘Lost’ portrait of Augusta Großherzogin von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1822-1916)

The recent catalogue of Victorian Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has helped me to shed light on the portrait in the collection of Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, known hitherto only as Damenbildnis [see no 321, Works by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1846-1850].

The painting can now be fully identified as a portrait of Augusta Großherzogin von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1822-1916), née Princess of Cambridge, painted at Windsor Castle between 7 and 16 October 1846.

The following research information backs up my suggestion:

A miniature enamel copy of this portrait (5.0 x 4.0 cm) by John Simpson (1811-aft 1871), signed, dated, and identified as a copy after Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s portrait of Princess Augusta of Cambridge, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, of 1846, is in the collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II (RCIN 421918).
A further copy of this portrait by Henry Melville (fl 1846-86) (oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8 cm, oval), is also in the collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II (RCIN 406676).
Both copies were commissioned by Queen Victoria after the original portrait by F.X. Winterhalter, which was given to the sitter’s husband, Friedrich Wilhelm Großherzog von Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1819-1904).

There are numerous references to confirm the dating of the portrait from October 1846:

The portrait was commissioned by Queen Victoria from Franz Xaver Winterhalter, who was in England from September 1846 to February 1847 [Oliver Millar, Victorian Pictures, 1: 284]
One of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting, Hon. Eleanor Stanley, wrote in a letter from Windsor Castle, dated 7 October 1846: “I was on the whole day with some Royalty or other, as the Grand Duchess [of Mecklenburg] sat for her picture from eleven till two to Winterhalter, and desired [me] to go and sit with her… After lunch she had another sitting, and I attended again till four o’clock, when she went out driving with the Queen…” [Eleanor Stanley, Letters (London: 1916), 136].
The portrait is mentioned in Queen Victoria’s diary in an entry for 16 October 1846, where the portrait is described as ‘quite beautiful & so boldly, as well as finely painted’ [Oliver Millar, Victorian Pictures (London: 1992), 1: 326].
It was given as a joint present from Queen Victoria and the Dowager Queen Adelaide to the sitter’s husband, then the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on 17 October 1846 [ibid].
The portrait is mentioned on the list of portraits by F.X. Winterhalter, published posthumously by the artist’s nephew, Franz Wild, in 1894, where it appears among other 1846 portraits by the artist [Franz Wild, Neckrologe…, 38].

Confirmation from the Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, of this identification is pending further correspondence.

Sitters Identified: The Coulson Family

Sitters Identified: The Coulson Family

The following entry in Franz Wild’s list of Hermann Winterhalter’s sitters reads: Revd J.E.Coulson, sa femme et son enfant [see no 51, the Hermann Winterhalter Catalogue page].

Recent research has uncovered that the entry refers to Rev John Edward Coulson (1825-1915), and his wife, née Rhoda May Baird (1834-1913), whom he married at Clevedon, Somerset, 7 April 1858 (or 1857). The identity of their child is presently unknown.

Rhoda May Baird was a daughter of Rhoda Susan Willis (Atherfield, IoW, 16.05.1809-Staunton House, Bournemouth, Christchurch 1.11.1873), by her first husband Captain James Charles Baird, 15^th King’s Hussars. Widowed, she married secondly 1.06.1841 Sir Arthur Hallam Elton, 7^th Bt, MP (19.04.1818-14.10.1883). Portraits of Rhoda May Coulson née Baird as a young woman by William Gush (fl. 1833-74), and by an unknown British watercolourist are by descent at Clevedon Court, North Somerset.

Wild’s entry could refer either to a group family portrait, or to three separate portraits. Size and present location of the Coulson portrait(s) by Hermann Winterhalter is presently unknown.

Winterhalter Exhibition at Galeries Jacques Selgmann, Paris, 1928

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Winterhalter Exhibition at Galeries Jacques Selgmann, Paris, 1928

I recently came across a facsimile copy of a very rare and valuable exhibition catalogue of Winterhalter’s works, which took place at Galeries Jacques Selgimann et Fils in Paris in 1928. The exhibition was ostensibly inspired by the recent sale of Empress Eugénie’s estate in London, which included a number of important portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. The exhibition was organised by the Parisian art dealer Jacques Seligmann, who purchased Winterhalter’s portrait of the Empress in the 18^th-Century dress from the above-mentioned sale, with the curatorial assistance from Armand Dayot, a French art critic and historian, who also contributed an important introductory essay to the catalogue.

The examination of the catalogue resulted in the following catalogue updates:

– Armand Dayot mentions a portrait of a Countess von Grafenstein as an outstanding example of Winterhalter’s early paintings of the Munich period. Further information on this portrait is unknown; neither is the exact identity of the sitter, as there were several women of that title during the late 1820s / early 1830s. It is provisionally placed in the catalogue raisonné under cat no 39b.

– A brief note to the portrait of Mlle Paule Heine-Furtado (see cat no 809a) states that the portrait shows the sitter at the age of 16. This places the portrait around c.1863-64. Nevertheless, purely on stylistic grounds, I believe this to be a later painting, dating from c. 1866-67, which also coincides with Mlle Heine-Furtado’s first marriage to the Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de La Moskowa (see illustration left).

1846 Pourtales Winterhalter

– The sitter’s name in the cat no 313 has been altered to that of Mlle Marguerite Renouard de Buissière, Comtesse Auguste de Pourtalès (1840-1926) rather than that of her cousin, Mlle Mélanie de Bussière, Comtesse Edmond de Pourtalès (1838-1919), as was stated in Winterhalter 1987/88 (see illustration right).

– The exhibition included a portrait of Anna Thillon, a famous opera singer (see cat no 891). This is the only item in the exhibition catalogue with a note regarding its provenance. According to the catalogue note, it was commissioned by composer Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782-1871); bequeathed by him to composer and theatre director Camille du Locle (1832-1903); and bequeathed by the latter to Opéra Comique, Paris, c. 1871, where it was badly damaged by fire in 1887: “Fort heureusement le visage d’une beauté si tendrement rayonnante, a été miraculeusement épargné ainsi que le frais décolleté où fleurit un petit bouquet délicieusement peint.” It is perhaps a later restoration of the portrait that impedes its full authentication as a Winterhalter original.

Among the most felicitous discoveries was that Hermann Winterhalter was not overlooked! Dayot dedicates at least a full page to Hermann in his introductory essay, and states: “Sa clientèle de modèles n’atteignit pas à la hauteur hiérarchique de celle de son frère, mais il trouva parfois cependant de flatteuses occasions d’exercer avec succès son réel talent de peintre de la figure, comme dans l’exécution des beaux portraits d’Amaury Duval et de Mme Furtado, pour ne citer que deux de ses meilleures peintures.”

Neither further details nor present location of these two portraits by Hermann Winterhalter (i.e. those of Eugène Amaury Pineux Duval, dit Amaury Duval (1808-1885) and Mme Cécile Furtado-Heine (1821-1896), née Furtado) are presently known; and only the portrait of Mme Furtado-Heine was shown at the exhibition (no 10). The latter was also included in Franz Wild’s posthumous list of Hermann Winterhalter’s works.

Both works have been entered in my preliminary catalogue of Hermann Winterhalter’s works as nos 139 and 16 respectively.