David Johnston
1808
Artist, French, 1758 - 1823
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 54.6 x 46.4 cm (21 1/2 x 18 1/4 in.)
framed: 74.3 x 66.7 x 12.4 cm (29 1/4 x 26 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.) -
Accession
1961.9.84
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The portrait's original owner is said to have been the sitter [1789-1854], Bordeaux, France; by descent to the Johnston family, Bordeaux.[1] Edouard-Napoléon-Cesar-Edmond Mortier, duc de Trévise [1883-1946], Paris, in 1913; (his sale, Hôtel Jean Charpentier, Paris, 19 May 1938, no. 36); bought in for the family by (Robert Lebel [1901-1986], Paris);[2] (Julius H. Weitzner [1896-1986], New York); sold 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Information that the picture remained with the Johnston family until its purchase for the duc de Trévise in 1913 was first published by Charles Sterling in Chefs-d-oeuvre de l'art français (Exh. cat. Palais National des Arts, Paris, 1937: 105, no. 211). This was not repeated in the catalogue of the Trévise sale in 1938.
[2] An annotated copy of Trévise sale catalogue gives Lebel, one of the experts at the sale, as the buyer. Julius Weitzner wrote to Dr. Suida at the Kress Foundation that the painting was bought in by the family, and that he (Weitzner) "purchased it from the sole survivor of the Duc de Trevise" (letter, 21 March 1952, copy in NGA curatorial files)
[3] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/643.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1922
Exposition P.-P. Prud'hon, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1922, no. 52, as Portrait d'homme.
1937
Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art français, Palais National des Arts, 1937, no. 211, repro., as M. Johnson [sic].
1997
Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur [title for New York showing: Pierre-Paul Prud'hon], Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997-1998, no. 139, repro.
Bibliography
1924
Guiffrey, Jean. L'Oeuvre de P.-P. Prud'hon. Paris, 1924: 262-263, no. 704.
1926
Lapouyade, Méaudre de. Essai d'Histoire des Faïenceries de Bordeaux du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Macon, 1926: 74-79, pl. 18.
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: 144, no. 56, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 375, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 105.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 93, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 276, repro.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 363, fig. 327, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 418, no. 596, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 320, repro.
1986
Laveissière, Sylvain. Prud'hon. Las Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant le Crime (Les dossiers du département des peintures 32). Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1986: 8.
2000
Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 325-329, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower right: Prudhon / 1808
Wikidata ID
Q20182326