Provenance

Possibly Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th marquess of Hertford [1800-1870], London and Paris;[1] his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace [1818-1890], London and Paris;[2] by inheritance to his wife, Amélie-Julie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace [1819-1897], Paris and London;[3] by inheritance to her adviser and secretary, Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], London and Paris;[4] (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 24 June 1913, no. 34, as by Falconet); (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York and Paris); sold 5 March 1920 to William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York;[5] bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The sculpture is not specifically mentioned in the correspondence between Lord Hertford and his London agent and dealer, Samuel Mawson, but there are references to similar types of bronzes, so it is not certain who acquired NGA 2014.136.244. See: John Ingamells, ed., The Hertford Mawson Letters, London, 1981; letter, 6 December 2000, Robert Wenley, Curator of Sculpture and Metalwork, Wallace Collection, London, to Laura Coyle, Assistant Curator, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; and Suzanne E. May's 2001 document "Bronzes in the William A. Clark Collection Formerly in the Collection of Sir Richard and Lady Wallace," both letters in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The sculpture was included in the 1874 catalogue documenting the loan exhibition of the Wallace collection at Bethnal Green in London, which began in 1872 when Wallace began alterations to his father's family home, Hertford House, in London's Manchester Square. Robert Wenley (see note 1) suggests that the sculpture's omission from the original 1872 Bethnal Green exhibition catalogue argued for it having been brought over later from one of the two Paris residences owned by Lord Hertford and subsequently inherited by his son, as opposed to it having been part of the collection already in London. Wenley also suggested that if it was brought over from Paris, it had probably been acquired in France. Later, the sculpture is listed in the Hertford House inventories made in 1890 and 1897, after Wallace's and Lady Wallace's deaths, respectively. It also appears in a photograph of the landing at the top of the Grand Staircase in Hertford House, a copy of which was sent by Robert Cecil, assistant to the director of the Wallace Collection, with his letter of 18 January 1978 to Edward Nygren, curator at the Corcoran.
[3] Lady Wallace inherited all of her husband's property, and bequeathed the majority of the collection at Hertford House to the British nation.
[4] Scott inherited from Lady Wallace the portion of the collection at Hertford House not left to the nation, as well as the contents of the Paris residences. The sculpture is documented at his London residence in 1903; see Robert Wenley's 2000 letter (note 1).
[5] The purchase from the Scott sale by Seligmann and the sale to Clark are documented in the Jacques Seligmann & Co. Records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: 2.1, Collectors, 1908, 1917-1977; Box 180, Folder 1: Clark, William A.; https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jacques-seligmann--co-records-9936, accessed 10 December 2015.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1874

1989

Bibliography

1925

Wikidata ID

Q63863543