Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson
1745
Artist, French, 1685 - 1766
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 137.9 x 105.4 cm (54 5/16 x 41 1/2 in.)
framed: 177.8 x 144.78 x 15.24 cm (70 x 57 x 6 in.) -
Accession
1961.9.30
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Duc de Mailly; Théodore Richard [1782-1859], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19-20 and 22 March 1858, no. 176, with sitter misidentified as Portrait of Bouffon). (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 27 March 1877, no. 42, with sitter misidentified as Portrait of Bouffon); Gustave Rothan; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 29-31 May 1890, no. 176, as Portrait of a Man); L. Cahen d'Anvers,[1] Paris, by 1900; A. de Rothschild, by 1906; (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London), by 4 May 1936; comte X...; (his sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 18 March 1937, lot A); purchased by Damidot.[2] (Galerie Cailleux, Paris), by 1952;[3] purchased 9 February 1954 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] In all probability, the French banker comte Louis-Raphaël Cahen d'Anvers (1837-1922); see Colin Bailey's entry for Renoir's Portrait of Alice and Élisabeth Cahen d'Anvers (Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo Assis Chateaubriand), in Colin Bailey, Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat.; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Institute of Chicago; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; New Haven, 1997: 180-182, no. 38, and notes on 306-307.
[2] This was reported in the Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, 20 March 1937: 1.
[3] The painting was lent by Cailleux to the 1952 exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1171.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1746
Salon of 1746, Paris, no. 67, as M. Bonier de la Mosson dans son cabinet.
1878
Tableaux anciens et modernes, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1878, no. 195, as Portrait de Buffon.
1883
L'art du XVIIIe Siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883-1884, no. 111, as Portrait d'homme.
1900
Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900, no. 208.
1932
Exhibition of French Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 239 (no. 205 of first catalogue).
1952
Cent portraits d'hommes du XIVe siècle à nos jours, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1952, no. 70, repro.
1999
Jean-Marc Nattier: 1685-1766, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 1999-2000, no. 42, repro.
2011
Paris: Life & Luxury in the Eighteenth Century, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2011-2012, no. 93, repro.
Bibliography
1747
La Font de Saint-Yenne. Réflexions sur quelques causes de l'état présent de la peinture en France. The Hague, 1747: 107 (reprint Geneva, 1970).
1894
Mantz, Paul. "J.-M. Nattier." _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_Ser.3, Vol. 12 (August 1894): 107.
1900
Portalis, Baron Roger. "Les Arts á l'Exposition Universelle de 1900: exposition rétrospective de la Ville de Paris." Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 3, 24 (1900): 211-212.
1905
Nolhac, Pierre de. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV. Paris, 1905: 105-106, 137, 156, repro. facing 106; 2nd edition (1910): 168-170, 249, no. 225; 3rd edition (1925): 188-191, 275, no. 248.
1909
Dumont-Wilden, Louis. "Le portrait en France." Brussels, 1909: 225.
1910
Nolhac, Pierre de. "Deux portraits inédits par Nattier." Les Arts 97 (Jan. 1910): 2.
1930
Huard, Georges. "Nattier, 1685 à 1766." In Louis Dimier. Les peintres français du XVIIIe siècle: Histoire des vies et catalogue des oeuvres. 2 vols. Paris, 1928-1930: 2(1930):111, 123, no. 57.
1937
Beaux-Arts. "Les tableaux de la collection de M. le Comte de X..." Beaux-Arts 218 (March 5, 1937): 4, repro.
Pantheon. "Paris, Auktionen." _ Pantheon 9 _ no. 5 (May 1937): 164, 162, repro.
Revue de l'art 1937b. "Le don de M. Mellon à la nation américaine." Revue de l'Art 71, no. 376 (April 1937): 78, 77, repro.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection 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: 134, no. 51, repro.
Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 229-230 n. 15, fig. 12.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 34, 38, pl. 85.
1959
Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 32, 33, color repro.
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 358, repro.
Bourdier, V.F. "L'extravagant cabinet de Bonnier." Connaissance des Arts 90 (August 1959): 53 n. 52, 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: 185, 213, fig. 175.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 316, 340, repro.
Cailleux, Paul. Cailleux: 1912-1962. Paris, 1963: n.p., repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 96.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:310, color repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 84, repro.
1972
Chaussinand-Nogaret, Guy. Gens de finance au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1972: 140, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 252, repro.
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 328, no. 435, color repro.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 309-310, fig. 275.
1980
Fredericksen, Burton B. Masterpieces of Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, 1980: no. 45.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 326, no. 431, color repro.
Roland Michel, Marianne. Lajoüe et l'art rocaille. Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1984: 42, 360 n. 40.
Le Faubourg Saint-Germain: la rue Saint-Dominique, hôtels et amateurs. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1984: 17, 152, color repro. pl. 1.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 291, repro.
1996
McClellan, Andrew. "Watteau's Dealer: Gersaint and the Marketing of Art in Eighteenth-Century Paris." The Art Bulletin 78, no. 3 (September 1996): 447, 449, repro. fig. 11.
1999
Salmon, Xavier. "Le Musée idéal." Nattier, peintre de la beauté: expositions à Versailles et Chantilly. Dossier de l'art 62 (November 1999): 62, 64, color repro. fig. 2.
Renard, Philippe. Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766): un artiste parisien à la cour de Louis XV. Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau, 1999: 84-85, 177, 215, 236 n. 100.
2000
Goodman, Elise. The Portraits of Madame de Pompadour: Celebrating the Femme Savante. Berkeley and London, 2000: xvi, 101, 104-105, 163 n. 39, 104, fig. 57.
2002
Jones, Colin. Madame de Pompadour: Images of a Mistress. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 2002-2003. London, 2002: 45, fig. 18 (not in the exhibition).
2008
Baillio, Joseph. A Fantastical Recreation of Bonnier de la Mosson's Cabinets of Natural History, Collection of Drugs and Pharmaceutical Compounds and Chemistry Laboratory by Jacques de Lajoüe (1686-1761) -- A Newly Rediscovered Masterpiece of the Age of Enlightenment. New York, 2008: 6, color repro., 22, color repro., 23-24, 23, color repro., 25.
2009
Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 73, 336-342, color repro.
Inscriptions
center left at base of column: Nattier / 1745
Wikidata ID
Q20177951