The Listener (Le bourgeois en attente)

model probably after 1860, cast around November 1956

Anonymous Artist

Sculptor

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 15.5 x 6.9 x 7.4 cm (6 1/8 x 2 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1964.8.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Maurice Gobin, Paris), c. 1950-1956;[1] (Henri M. Petiet, Paris); sold April 1963 to Lessing Julius Rosenwald, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania;[2] gift 1964 to NGA.
[1] In 1952 Maurice Gobin first introduced and discussed a group of terracotta figurines; see Maurice Gobin, Daumier Sculpteur. 1808-1879, Geneva, 1952. They were cast in bronze, and Lessing Rosenwald acquired ten different bronzes from the group. Correspondence in the Rosenwald Papers, NGA Archives, suggests that the casting project was initiated and supervised by Gobin himself simultaneously with the publication of his book, and that he also seems to have masterminded their distribution and price. For Gobin's role, see Henri M. Petiet, letters of 27 April 1956, 16 July and 11 December 1957, to Elizabeth Mongan; and Mongan, letter of 20 December 1957, to Petiet (Rosenwald Papers, NGA Archives, Box 69 [1956], and Box 74 [1957].
[2] The dealer Henri Petiet received the bronzes as soon as they were serialized, which was in pairs, and offered most of them to Mr. Rosenwald, allegedly as they were released to the public. The fifth pair (NGA 1964.8.1 and .2) were serialized and released November 1956 and purchased April 1963. See Petiet, letter of 13 November 1956, to Elizabeth Mongan, and a list titled "Alverthorpe--Daumier. Bronzes purchased" [from H.M. Petiet, Paris], dated June 1959; Rosenwald Papers, NGA Archives, Box 69 [1956], Box 82 [list].

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Honoré Daumier, Anniversary Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1958, no. 18, as The Attentive Bourgeois by Honoré Daumier.

1960

  • Honoré Daumier, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960, no cat.

1969

  • Daumier Sculpture: A Critical and Comparative Study, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, no. 48b, repro.

Bibliography

1952

  • Gobin, Maurice. Daumier Sculpteur, 1808-1879. Geneva, 1952: no. 55.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 151, as by Daumier.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 134, repro., as by Daumier.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 61, repro.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 206-212, color repro.

Inscriptions

falsely signed, incised on self-base in the model and enhanced after casting: h.D.; on underside: 11/30

Markings

FM: Valsuani

Wikidata ID

Q63854521

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