1 / 3

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Clodion

The Surprise, 1799

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G11-A

Medium

terracotta

Dimensions

overall (with self-base): 36.8 x 26 x 18.7 cm (14 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Irma I. Straus in memory of her husband, Jesse Isidor Straus

Accession Number

1942.12.1

Artists / Makers

Clodion (artist) French, 1738 - 1814

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

on base below drapery: CLODION / 1799

Provenance

Probably collection of Armand-Jean-Baptiste Maurin [d. by 1803], 1805.[1] Émile Ladan-Bockairy, Paris, by 1900. [2] George Blumenthal [1858-1941], New York, after 1911; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-2 December 1932, no. 96); (Jean Seligmann).[3] Mrs. Jesse Isidor Straus [1876-1970], New York; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The work corresponds to the description in the Maurin sale catalogue 1 April 1805, Paris, lot 44; Thirion, Les Adam et Clodion, Paris, 1885: 402.

[2] Lent by Émile Ladan-Bockairy to the 1900 Exposition universelle in Paris, no. 4727, and Molinier/Marcou 1901, repro.

[3] See annotated sales catalogue in NGA Curatorial Records.

Associated Names

Blumenthal, George
Galerie Georges Petit
Ladan-Bockairy, Emile
Maurin, Armand-Jean-Baptiste
Seligmann, Jean
Straus, Jesse Isidor, Mrs.

Exhibition History

1900: Exposition universelle, Paris, 1900, no. 4727.

1974: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1885: Thirion, Henri. Les Adam et Clodion. Paris, 1885: 402.

1900: Exposition Universelle de 1900. Catalogue officiel illustré de l'Exposition rétrospective de l'art français, des origins à 1800. Exh. cat., Paris, 1900: 311, n. 4727, as l'Effroi.

1901: Molinier, Émile, and Frantz Marcou. Exposition rétrospective de l'art français des origines à la fin du XIXe siècle. Paris, 1901: 130, 140, repro. as La Surprise.

1910: Lami, Stanislas. Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'Ecole française au dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1910-1911: 2: 152.

1924: Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs & graveurs. 3 vols. Paris, 1911-1924: illustrated opp. 784, 920 as Bacchante.

1926: Rubenstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York. 6 vols. Paris, 1926-1930: V (1930): plate LX.

1943: "La Surprise by Clodion." The Art Quarterly 6, no. 3 (1943): 232, 234, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 149.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 132, repro.

1974: Hodgkinson, Terence. "A Clodion Statuette in the National Gallery of Canada." Bulletin, The National Gallery of Canada 24 (1974): 13-21, repro. fig. 7.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 645, no. 1018, repro.

1984: Weinshenker, Anne Betty. "Clodion at the Frick Collection." Art Journal 44 (Winter 1984): 383-85, esp. 384.

1993: Scherf, Guilhem. "La Léda de Clodion, une terre cuite de la collection Edouard Salin au château de Montaigu." Le Pays Lorrain: Journal de la Sociétée d'Archéologie Lorraine et du Musée Historique Lorrain 3 (1993):139-146, repro.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 47, repro.

1998: Peronnet, Benjamin, and Burton B. Fredericksen, eds. Répertoire des tableaux vendus en France au XIX siècle, Vol. 1, part 1 (1801-1810). Los Angeles, 1998: 30.

2008: Penny, Nicholas. "The Evolution of the Plinth, Pedestal, and Socle." In Collecting Sculpture in Early Modern Europe. Nicholas Penny and Eike D. Schmidt, eds. Studies in the History of Art 70, Symposium Papers 47 (2008): 461, 464 fig. 7 and color repro.