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Jean Siméon Chardin French, 1699 - 1779 The House of Cards, c. 1735 oil on canvas Overall: 82.2 x 66 cm (32 3/8 x 26 in.) framed: 107.3 x 92.1 x 10.2 cm (42 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 4 in.) Andrew W. Mellon Collection 1937.1.90 |
Object 4 of 11
Provenance
Catherine II, empress of Russia [1729-1796], by 1774, for the Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg;[1] purchased March 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 1 May 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The first Hermitage catalogue in which the NGA painting appears is dated to 1774 by Pierre Rosenberg in Paris, Cleveland and Boston 1979: 234, under no. 72. Following Lacroix 1861 in this dating, Rosenberg states that "no. 408 'Un jeune garcon faisant des maisons de cartes' refers indisputably to the painting now in Washington." On this basis, elsewhere in the same exhibition catalogue (p. 220), Rosenberg rejects the suggestion of Wildenstein 1963 and 1969: no. 207, that the NGA painting was the one sold by Paillet in Paris on 15 December 1777, no. 211, 86.5 x 67.5 centimeters. Ernst 1935, says that the Hermitage's manuscript catalogue was drawn up by Ernst Milich a few years after 1774, between 1777 and 1785; Little Girl with a Shuttlecock is no. 407; The House of Cards is no. 408.
[2] The dates of the Mellon purchase and the deed to the Mellon Trust are according to Mellon records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook (donated to NGA in 1977 and now in Gallery Archives).
Associated Names
- Catherine II of Russia
- Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., P. & D.
- Knoedler & Company, M.
- Matthiesen Fine Art Limited
- Mellon, Andrew W.
- Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
- State Hermitage Museum
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