National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Giuseppe Balsamo, Comte di Cagliostro
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

on truncated right arm: houdon / f. / 1786. (in script)

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Possibly (sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 22-24 November 1826, no. 208, as Un Buste en marbre de Cagliostro par M. Houdon).[1] Sir Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford [1800-1870], Paris; by inheritance to his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace [1818-1890], Paris; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Julie Wallace [1819-1897], Paris; by bequest to the Wallace's secretary and adviser, Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], Paris; by bequest to his intimate friend, Josephine Victoria Sackville-West, Lady Sackville [1864-1936], Paris; sold 1914 to (Jacques Seligmann & Cie, Paris and New York);[2] purchased February 1952 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] Anne L. Poulet, Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Musée et domaine national du château de Versailles, Washington, D.C., 2003: 125.

[2] The direct transfer from Sir John Murray Scott to Lady Sackville and then to Jacques Seligmann is described in Germain Seligman's book Merchants of Art, New York, 1961: 98-99. Seligmann Paris stock no. 7969 and New York no. 2205 (Archives of American Art, Seligmann Papers, NY Stock Catalogues, Box 280, folder 8, copy NGA curatorial files). Germain Seligmann, manager of Seligmann's New York branch, is listed as the owner in the catalogue of the 1932 exhibition of French art in London, and in Robert Cecil's 1950 article, "The Remainder of the Hertford and Wallace Collections," Burlington Magazine, XCII (June 1950): 170, no. 24. The bust was in Paris when the Nazis invaded in 1940 and was confiscated with other portions of the Seligmann family collections at that time. It was recovered and returned to France in 1947. Correspondence concerning Germain Seligmann's efforts to have the bust shipped from France to the United States beginning in 1948 can be found in the Seligmann papers, Archives of American Art, Box 141 (copies in NGA curatorial files).

[3] The invoice for the purchase of the bust was included with a letter of 8 February 1952 from Seligmann's New York branch to the Kress Foundation (copy in NGA curatorial files). The bust was sent to Washington from New York a week later.

Exhibition History

1883
L'Art au XVIIIe siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883-1884, no. 250.
1888
Possibly Exposition de l'art français sous Louis XIV et sous Louis XV, Ecole des beaux-arts, Hôtel de Chimay, Paris, 1888, no. 77.
1908
Cent pastels du XVIIIe siècle et bustes, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1908, no. 212.
1932
Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 1005.
1974
Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.
1976
The Eye of Thomas Jefferson, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1976, no. 228.

Bibliography

1908
Lemoisne, Paul André. "Exposition de cent pastels et bustes du XVIIIe siècle." Les Arts. 82 (October 1908): 2-32, repro.
1908
Schemit, Jean. "Catalogue critique des sculptures." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français (1908): 173-175, 357-360, repro.
1929
Giacometti, Georges. La vie de l'oeuvre de Houdon 2 vols. Paris, 1928: 26, repro.
1950
Cecil, Robert. "The Remainder of the Hertford and Wallace Collections." The Burlington Magazine 92 (June 1950): 168-172, repro. fig. 19, 24.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Colllection 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: 236, no. 95, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 457, repro.
1961
Seymour 1961 (Kress), 193, repro. pl. 182-183.
1964
Réau, Louis. Houdon: Sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1964: 27-28, no. 95, repro. pl. XLVI.
1965
Cecil, R.A. "French Eighteenth Century Sculpture formerly in the Hertford-Wallace Collection." Apollo 81 (June 1965): 449-459, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 158.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 140, repro.
1976
Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 111.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 645, no. 1015, repro.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 109, repro.
1994
Stafford, Barbara Maria. Artful Science: Enlightenment Entertainment and the Eclipse of Visual Education. Cambridge, MA, 1994: repro. 124.
1997
Craske, Matthew. Art in Europe 1700-1830: A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth. Oxford, 1997: repro.
2003
Poulet, Anne L. Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Musée et domaine national du château de Versailles. Washington, D.C., 2003: 123-126, no. 14.

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