National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Peasants Celebrating Twelfth Night
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower left on table edge: D. TENIERS F 1635; reverse: E'd Ladd Betts, Esq.

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Edward Ladd Betts [d. 1695], England.[1] M. Belinarde, 1785.[2] Alfred and Jacques Pereire, Paris, by 1936; Mme. I. P[ereire]; (her sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 4 June 1937, no. 22, as Le Roi boit!);[3] Guy Stein. Baron Alex. Gendebien, Brussels, in 1937;[4] consigned c. 1939 for Baron Robert Gendebien by Eric-Emil Lyndhurst, Brussels, to (Katz Gallery, Dieren, The Netherlands); probably sold to (P. Smit van Gelder, Antwerp); sold to (J. Kalb); sold 12 February 1941 to (Goudstikker firm, Amsterdam); sold 11 December 1941 to Professor Hoffmann, Munich; Baron Robert Gendebien, Brussels, 1955. Eric-Emil Lyndhurst, Brussels, 1955.[5] (Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam), 1955.[6] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1963, no. 42); Mrs. Pethick.[7] Mrs. M. Polak, New York.[8] (Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam), in 1964. Dr. Heinrich Becker, Dortmund, by 1967;[9](Schaeffer Galleries, New York); purchased 3 February 1972 by NGA.

[1] The painting is inscribed on the reverse "E'd Ladd Betts, Esq." This is probably Edward Betts, a famous English physician, who died on 27 April 1695.

[2] John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols., London, 1929-1942: 3(1831):334, no. 276.

[3] The painting could possibly have been in the collection of the Pereire family in the nineteenth century. During that period two Pereire brothers, Emile (1800-1875) and Isaac (1806-1880), played essential roles in France by pioneering railway transport and making innovations in investment banking and credit procedures. They were major collectors and shared an elaborate mansion on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where the collection was displayed. It was largely dispersed at public sales in 1868 and 1872. Their descendants Alfred and Jacques Pereire lent the painting to a 1936 exhibition in Paris. The 1937 auction catalogue identifies the seller as "Madame I.P.," although she was known to be Madame Isaac Pereire. On the family and their collection, see: M. Castille, Les frères Pereire, Paris, 1961; W. Bürger, "Galerie de MM. Pereire," Gazette des Beaux-Arts XVI (1864): 193-213, 297-317; Francis Haskell, Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France, Ithaca, 1976: 83-86; Albert Boime, "Entrepreneurial Patronage in Nineteenth Century France," in Enterprise and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France, ed. Edward C. Carter II et al., Baltimore and London, 1976: 142-146; Les donateurs du Louvre, Paris, 1989: 289; Pierre Rosenberg, "La donation Pereire," La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 25, no. 4 (1975): 259.

[4] The 1964 Gebr. Douwes exhibition catalogue lists a Baron Alex. Gendebien as the owner of the painting in 1937. According to correspondence with the Inspectie Cultuurbezit of the Netherlands and copies of documents provided by the Dutch State Archives, a Baron Robert Gendebien owned the painting in 1939 and was involved in its restitution after it was confiscated during World War II (see note 5). The relationship between Alex. and Robert Gendebien, though obviously familial, is unclear.

[5] A note on Witt Library fiche no. 13.365 indicates that the painting was "stolen from Belgium, 1939/1945." Although the collection of Eric-Emil Lyndhurst, a Jewish collector and dealer, was confiscated by the Nazi Einstazstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in 1943, this painting does not appear on the list of his collection compiled at that time. According to his statement of 23 July 1948, "[S]ome months before the outbreak of war in 1939, [he] handed over to Mr. Nathan Katz (of the Firm D. Katz, Dieren) [the Teniers painting] belonging to Baron Robert Gendebien for sale." Lyndhurst learned from Katz that the painting had been taken by the Germans during the war. After passing through Katz, Smit van Gelder, the Nazi-controlled Goudstikker firm, Kalb, and Hoffmann (probably Heinrich Hoffmann [1885-1957], Adolf Hitler's photographer) the painting made its way into Hitler's possession. The records of the Munich Central Collecting Point indicate that after the war the painting was recovered by the Allies in Austria and restituted to the Netherlands on 15 April 1946 (Munich property card #2588/Aussee 1932; Dutch Receipt for Cultural Objects No. 10a, item no. 34, copies in NGA curatorial files). The painting arrived in the Netherlands on 28 May 1946. Although it is unclear to whom the painting was returned by the Dutch authorities, Robert Gendebien was assumed to be the rightful owner and was involved in the restitution. After its return, he may have again put the painting on consignment to Lyndhurst, who, according to the 1964 Gebr. Douwes exhibition catalogue, was in possession of it in 1955. See the letter dated 9 December 1999 from the Inspectie Cultuurbezit of The Netherlands, and copies of documents from the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, archive no. 267, sent 4 January 2000 by the Dutch State Archives, in NGA curatorial files.

[6] According to a handwritten notation on a photograph in the Rubenianum in Antwerp.

[7] The Sotheby's auction report lists the purchaser of the painting as a Mrs. Pethick. Her name, however, does not appear in any other provenance listing. Perhaps she was an agent for a dealer or private collector.

[8] According to the catalogue of the 1964 Gebr. Douwes exhibition. In a letter of 30 January 1985 from Mrs. H.S. Schaeffer of Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., in NGA curatorial files, Mrs. Polak is listed as living in Sarasota.

[9] See Fritz Rolf, Sammlung Becker, Dortmund, 1967: no. 86; in this entry the 1936 exhibition at the Pavillon de Marsan, which included the painting, is incorrectly listed as being at the Pavillon de Marsau in 1946.

Exhibition History

1936
Exposition Rétrospective de la Vigne et le Vin dans l'Art, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 1936, no. 87.
1964
Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en tekeningen, Kunsthandel Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1964, no. 24.

Bibliography

1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 3:(1831): 334, no. 276.
1967
Fritz, Rolf. Sammlung Becker, I: Gemälde alter Meister. Dortmund, 1967: unpaginated, no. 86, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 336, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 287, no. 377, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 386, repro.
1988
Brown, Beverley Louise, and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. Masterworks from Munich: Sixteenth- to Eighteenth-Century Paintings from the Alte Pinakothek. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 146. (The NGA painting was not in the exhibition.)
1989
Greindl, Edith, et. al. XVIIe siècle: l'Age d'Or de la peinture flamande. Brussels, 1989: 82, repr.
1991
Klinge, Margret. David Teniers the Younger: Paintings, Drawings. Exh. cat. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 1991: 266, repro.
1992
Bauman, Guy C., and Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992: 278-279, repro.
1994
Wagenberg-ter Hoeven, Anke A. van. "The Celebration of Twelfth Night in Netherlandish Art." Simiolus 22 (1993-1994): 78, repro.
1997
Wagenberg-ter Hoeven, Anke A. van. Het Driekoningenfeest--De uitheelding van een populair thema in de beeldende kunst van de zeventiende eeuw. Amsterdam, 1997: 95, 208, cat. 76, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 231, no. 184, color repro.
2005
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 239-242, color repro.

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