Galatea

1701

Robert Le Lorrain

Artist, French, 1666 - 1743

A mostly nude young woman carved from cream-white marble sits on a rock formation in this free-standing sculpture. In this photograph, her body faces us, but her head turns to our left. She has a long nose and small mouth. Her wavy, upswept hair is wrapped across the top with a braid that hangs down the back of her neck, over her shoulder, and it falls between her breasts. With her left hand, to our right, up near her shoulder, she holds one end of a cloth that wraps around her back and across her hips. Her other hand rests down by her side and holds a shell with shallow grooves. Her left foot extends slightly forward of the right, making the knees uneven. At her feet lie two stylized sea creatures with round heads, deep-set eyes, and large lips that emerge from choppy waves. The sculpture sits on a veined, pink marble base carved with the word “GALATEE.” The background is fog gray, and the sculpture casts a shadow to our right.

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 54

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 75.1 x 37.7 x 45.1 cm (29 9/16 x 14 13/16 x 17 3/4 in.)
    gross weight: 207 lb. (93.895 kg)

  • Accession

    1952.5.105

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Académie Royale, Paris, 1701; Museum of French Art, Versailles; given October 1819 to the Maréchal family, descendants of the sculptor;[1] Jean-Baptiste Henry (sic) Collin, comte de Sussy [1750-1826], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence, Paris, 13-17 and 19-23 March 1832, 5th day, unnumbered, under "Marbres").[2] François Coty, Chateau du Puy d'Artigny and Pavillon Du Barry, Louveciennes; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17-18 December 1936, no. 45); (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London);[3] sold June 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] Louis Courajod, Histoire du département de la sculpture moderne au Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1894: 92, which gives the 1819 date as 10 October; and André Fontaine, Les collections de l'Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Paris, 1930: xii, 126, 162, which gives the date as 5 October. The sculpture was given to the family in exchange for a marble medallion of Louis XIV by Girardon, who collaborated with Le Lorrain.
Michèle Beaulieu, in her article "Un grand sculpteur méconnu," _Le Jardin des Arts_ (June 1956): 487, and her monograph _Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743)_, Neuilly-sur Seine, 1982: 50-52, 86, 115-118, no. 108, figs. 51 and 53, cites documentation at the Archives of the Musée du Louvre in Paris (P10, 1819, 25 June, and S10, 1819, 5 October) and identifies Mr. Maréchal as the grandson of the sculptor. However, he was not the grandson, but the great-grandson of the sculptor, namely Armand Jean Louis Maréchal (1774-after 1851), information that was kindly shared with NGA by Bent Sorenson. See his e-mails of 23 and 28 September 2016, in NGA curatorial files, which cite additional documentation about Maréchal in the Archives nationales, Paris (Minutier central des notaires de Paris), and the Archives de Paris (Fichiers alphabétiques de l'état civil reconstitué); see also Bent Sorensen, "The Parisian career of the sculptor Jacques François Joseph Saly, 1749-53," _The Burlington Magazine_ 158 (November 2016): 893 n. 19.

[2] Beaulieu (see note 1) further notes that direct descendants of Maréchal sold the sculpture through a dealer to Kress. However, Frédéric Chappey, curator of the Musées de la Ville de l'Isle-Adam, brought to the attention of NGA curator Alison Luchs (letter of 4 January 1994, in NGA curatorial files) an 1832 estate sale of the comte de Sussy that included the marble Galatea. Chappey proposed to identify De Sussy as the son-in-law of Mr. Maréchal, but this remains unconfirmed, as does any relationship to the Maréchal family of F. Coty, the seller in 1936 (see note 3). The year is printed twice on the title page of the sale catalogue, as both 1831 and 1832; according to Lugts, 1832 is the correct year.
[3] A newspaper clipping in the NGA Library's copy of the sale catalogue lists Wildenstein as the buyer of Galatea.
[4] The Wildenstein invoice to the Kress Foundation for 16 items, including this sculpture, is dated 23 June 1949 (copy in NGA curatorial files). It lists the previous collections as "Collection of the Académie Royale, Dépôt de Versailles until 1819, M. Maréchal, grandson of Robert Le Lorrain, and M. François Coty, Chateau de Louveciennes (?)."

Associated Names

Bibliography

1715

  • Guerin, Nicolas, and Antoine-Nicolas Dézallier d'Argenville. Description de l'Academie Royale des Arts de Peinture et de Sculpture. Paris, 1715: 120.

1787

  • De´zallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Nicolas. Vies des fameux sculpteurs, depuis la renaissance des arts avec la description de leur ouvrages. 2 vols. Paris, 1787: 2:291 (reprint edition, Geneva, 1972).

1880

  • Procès-verbaux de l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, 1648-1793. 10 vols. Paris, 1880: 3:291, 294, 301, 326-327.

1894

  • Courajod, Louis. Histoire du département de la sculpture moderne au Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1894: 92.

1906

  • Lami, Stanislas. Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française sous le règne de Louis XIV. Paris, 1906: 312-313.

1929

  • Vollmer, Hans, ed. "Le Lorrain, Robert, Bildhauer." In Thieme-Becker 37 vols. 1907-1950. Leipzig, 1929: 23:12.

1930

  • Fontaine, André. Les collections de l'Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Paris, 1930: xii, 126, 162.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 248, no. 111, repro.

1956

  • Beaulieu, Michèle. "Un grand sculpteur méconnu, Robert Le Lorrain." Le Jardin des Arts (June 1956): 487, repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 447, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 175, repro. pl. 167-168.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 160.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 141, repro.

1972

  • Kalnein, Wend Graf, and Michael Levey. Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France. Harmondsworth, 1972: 46, pl. 44.

1976

  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 99-100, fig. 172.

1979

  • Beaulieu, Michèle. "L'Andromède de Robert Le Lorrain." Revue du Louvre XXIX, no. 4 (1979): 293, fig. 5.

1981

  • Souchal, François. French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries. 3 vols. Oxford, 1977-1987: 2(1981):336, no. 10, repro.

  • Sienkewicz, Thomas J. Classical Gods and Heroes In The National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1981: 37, repro.

1982

  • Beaulieu, Michèle. Robert Le Lorrain (1661-1743). Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1982: 50-52, 86, 115-118, no. 108, pls. XXX, XXXI.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 643, no. 1014, repro.

1986

  • Walker, Dean. "Review of Michèle Beaulieu, Robert Le Lorrain (1661-1743)." AB LXVIII, no. 3 (September 1986): 497.

1987

  • Souchal, François. French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries. 3 vols. Oxford, 1977-1987: 3(1987):369.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 132, repro.

1999

  • Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 64, fig. 83, 75 (not in the exhibition).

2012

  • Ströbele, Ursula. Die Bildhaueraufnahmestücke der Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris 1700-1730. Petersberg, 2012: 7, 11, 80, 82, 159, 165, 172, 187 n. 95, 203 n. 410, 204 n. 426; repros. fig. 93, fig. 194, pl. XI.

2016

  • Sorensen, Bent. "The Parisian career of the sculptor Jacques François Joseph Saly, 1749-53." The Burlington Magazine 158 (November 2016): 893 n. 19.

Inscriptions

on base, front: GALATEE; on base, back, in script: Robert Le Lorrain Sculpt. 1701

Wikidata ID

Q63810118

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