Singerie: The Sculptor, c. 1739

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G12

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 83 x 119.5 cm (32 11/16 x 47 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of George D. Widener and Eleanor Widener Dixon

Accession Number

1957.7.6

Artists / Makers

Christophe Huet (painter) French, 1700 - 1759

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Commissioned by François Jules Duvaucel [1672-1739] for a salon in the Château de La Norville, France; remained in the château through successive owners until sometime between 1901 and 1906; (Fauché, Paris), by 1907;[1] purchased 1922 through (André Carlhian, Paris) by Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice [1875-1956] and his wife, Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice [1861-1937], for the dining room of their Fifth Avenue manion, New York;[2] by inheritance 1956 to Mrs. Rice's children, George D. Widener, Jr. [1889-1971] and Eleanor Widener Dixon [1891-1966, Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon]; gift 1957 to NGA.

[1] The history of the decoration of the Château de La Norville is thoroughly described by Bruno Pons, Grands décors français, 1650-1800: reconstitués en Angleterre, aux Etats-Unis, en Amérique du Sud et en France, Dijon, 1995: 221-426. See also Abbé A.E. Genty, Histoire de la Norville et de sa seigneurie, Brussels and Geneva, 1885: 112-129.

[2] Mrs. Rice was born Eleonor Elkins in Philadelphia. Her first husband was George Dunton Widener, who perished with their elder son, Harry, in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. She married Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice in 1915. Her two other children with Widener inherited the New York residence after Dr. Rice's death.

Records of the Carlhian firm are in the Special Collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 930092. Copies of documents referring to the wall paneling are in the NGA curatorial files; see in particular the letter of 6 July 1923, from André Carlhian to Mrs. Rice, in which he tells her that "the Pineau boiserie which you bought from Fauché comes from the Chateau de la Norville, near Arpajon - about 20 miles from Paris." Both the six Huet paintings (NGA 1957.7.1-6) and the paneling (boiserie) by Pineau were given to the National Gallery of Art; the latter is NGA 1957.7.7.

Associated Names

Dixon, Eleanor Widener
Rice, Eleanore Elkins Widener
Widener, Jr., George D.

Bibliography

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 54.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 46, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 138, repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 26, repro.

2009: Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 62, 260-270, color repro.