National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Family of Saltimbanques

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower right: Picasso

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Purchased 1909 from the artist by André Level, Paris, for the collection of La Peau de l'Ours;[1] (their sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2 March 1914, no. 63, as Les bateleurs); purchased by (Modernen Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, Munich); sold between November 1914 and June 1915 to Hertha Koenig [1884-1976], Munich.[2] (Valentine Gallery, New York); sold 10 February 1931 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[3] bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] Provenance compiled from information in NGA curatorial records.

[2] The fifth Elegy by the German author Rainer Maria Rilke is dedicated to his friend and the owner of the painting, Hertha Koenig, a poet and promoter of art and artists. In November 1914, Rilke wrote to her that he had seen the painting at Thannhauser. In June 1915, while he was living in Munich and finding it difficult to obtain suitable lodgings, Rilke asked Koenig whether, while she and her family were in the country, he might live for a while in her house, and enjoy the privilege of living beside "the great Picasso." His request was granted, and he lived there from June until October. On June 28, in a letter to Thankmar Freiherr von Münchhausen, Rilke wrote that he was "sitting here in the apartment of friends...with the finest Picasso (the 'Saltimbanques'), in which there is so much Paris that, for the moment, I forget." (Wartime Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke 1914-1921, translated by M.D. Herter Norton, New York, 1940: 29-30). See also Rainer Maria Rilke: Duino Elegies. The German Text, with an English Translation, Introduction, and Commentary by J.B. Leishman and Stephen Spender, New York, 1939: 101-102.

[3] For Chester Dale's account of his acquisition of this painting from a bank in Switzerland, through Valentine Dudensing, see Dale's unpublished autobiography, Archives of American Art, microfilm reel #3969 (copies NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1931
Picasso-Braque-Léger, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 4.
1943
Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 1943-1952 (extended loan), unnumbered catalogue, repro. p. 48
1952
Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952, no. 51, repro.
1965
The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.
1978
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 4, repro.
1980
Picasso: The Saltimbanques, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980, no. 59, fig. 69, pl. 1.
1997
Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997-1998, no. 137, color repro. (shown only in Washington).
2010
From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1936
Bulliet, C. J. The Significant Moderns and Their Pictures. New York, 1936: repro. no. 103.
1942
Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. 33 vols. Paris, 1942-: 1(1957): no. 285, pl. 123.
1943
Dale 1943a, 48, repro.
1952
Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1952 (2nd ed., 1960; rev. ed., 1965): 51, repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 24, color repro. 18.
1960
Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960 (2nd ed.): 53, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 101
1965
Twentieth Century French Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965 (rev. ed.): 72, repro.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:512, color repro.
1966
Michener, James A. “Four Miracles—And A Masterpiece.” Reader’s Digest 89 (November 1966): 164.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 89, repro.
1968
Ishikawa, Joseph. "Moderne Malgré Lui: The Phenomenon of Puvis de Chavannes." Art Journal XXVII/4 (Summer 1968): 385, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 264, repro.
1978
King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 112, pl. 73.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 128, pl. 116, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 600, no. 932, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 306, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 240, 246, 247, color repro.
1992
Fitzgerald, Michael Cowan. "Skin Games," Art in America 80 (February 1992):70-83, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 254, repro.
1993
Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern (Exh. cat. Washington 1993). New York, 1993: 194, 197, fig. 1.
1997
Le miroir noir: Picasso,sources photographiques 1900-1928. Exh. cat. Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1997, p. 128, no. 115, repro.
1998
Román, Lydia Vélez. Sigamos, Lecturas Literarias y Culturales. 1998: 62, repro.
1998
Shefer, Elaine. "Masks/Personae." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:581.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 406-407, no. 337, color repro.
2005
Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art. 7th ed. New York, 2005: 782, color fig. 19.21
2008
Bois, Yve-Alain, ed. Picasso Harlequin 1917-1937. Exh. cat. Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2008-2009. Milan, 2008: 19, 20 fig. 2.
2012
Kennicott, Philip. "French Rooms Reopen, With Different Accents." Washington Post 135, no. 55 (January 29, 2012): E25.

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