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Pierre Paul Prud'hon

David Johnston, 1808

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 56

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 54.6 x 46.4 cm (21 1/2 x 18 1/4 in.)

framed: 74.3 x 66.7 x 12.4 cm (29 1/4 x 26 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.84

Artists / Makers

Pierre Paul Prud'hon (artist) French, 1758 - 1823

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: Prudhon / 1808

Provenance

The portrait's original owner is said to have been the sitter [1789-1854], Bordeaux, France; by descent to the Johnston family, Bordeaux.[1] Edouard-Napoléon-Cesar-Edmond Mortier, duc de Trévise [1883-1946], Paris, in 1913; (his sale, Hôtel Jean Charpentier, Paris, 19 May 1938, no. 36); bought in for the family by (Robert Lebel [1901-1986], Paris);[2] (Julius H. Weitzner [1896-1986], New York); sold 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Information that the picture remained with the Johnston family until its purchase for the duc de Trévise in 1913 was first published by Charles Sterling in Chefs-d-oeuvre de l'art français (Exh. cat. Palais National des Arts, Paris, 1937: 105, no. 211). This was not repeated in the catalogue of the Trévise sale in 1938.

[2] An annotated copy of Trévise sale catalogue gives Lebel, one of the experts at the sale, as the buyer. Julius Weitzner wrote to Dr. Suida at the Kress Foundation that the painting was bought in by the family, and that he (Weitzner) "purchased it from the sole survivor of the Duc de Trevise" (letter, 21 March 1952, copy in NGA curatorial files)

[3] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/643.

Associated Names

Galerie Charpentier
Johnston, David
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Lebel, Robert
Mortier, duc de Trévise, Édouard Napoléon César Edmond
Weitzner, Julius H.

Exhibition History

1922: Exposition P.-P. Prud'hon, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1922, no. 52, as Portrait d'homme.

1937: Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art français, Palais National des Arts, 1937, no. 211, repro., as M. Johnson [sic].

1997: Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur [title for New York showing: Pierre-Paul Prud'hon], Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997-1998, no. 139, repro.

Bibliography

1924: Guiffrey, Jean. L'Oeuvre de P.-P. Prud'hon. Paris, 1924: 262-263, no. 704.

1926: Lapouyade, Méaudre de. Essai d'Histoire des Faïenceries de Bordeaux du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Macon, 1926: 74-79, pl. 18.

1956: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 144, no. 56, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 375, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 105.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 93, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 276, repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 363, fig. 327, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 418, no. 596, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 320, repro.

1986: Laveissière, Sylvain. Prud'hon. Las Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant le Crime (Les dossiers du département des peintures 32). Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1986: 8.

2000: Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 325-329, color repro.