Countess Ebba Sparre

1652/1653

Sébastien Bourdon

Painter, French, 1616 - 1671

Shown from the hips up, a woman with pale skin, wearing a sapphire-blue gown, looks over her left shoulder at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left in profile, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, hooded, gray eyes. She has an oval face with a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her full, pink lips are closed. Wisps of brown hair fall across her forehead, and her face and neck are framed by a cloud of soft curls tied with a royal-blue bow over the ear on the side we can see. Around her neck is a cream-white pearl choker necklace. Her low-cut bodice is lined with transparent parchment-white fabric, which she holds at her chest with her right hand, farther from us. We see one blousy sleeve of her blue, satin dress, and the sleeve is tied at the elbow. Equally blousy white sleeves cover her forearms. With her left hand, closer to us, she holds a wreath of orange, pale blue, deep pink, and white flowers down by her waist. She is lit from the upper left, and the background behind her is dark in shadow. A patterned curtain hangs along the left edge of the painting.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 106.1 x 90.2 cm (41 3/4 x 35 1/2 in.)
    framed: 139.7 x 123.2 x 12.7 cm (55 x 48 1/2 x 5 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.34

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Christina, Queen of Sweden [1626-1689], Stockholm, Antwerp, and inventoried 1656 amongst her goods to be sent to Rome;[1] by inheritance to Cardinal Decio Azzolini [1623-1689], Rome; by inheritance to his nephew, Marchese Pompeo Azzolini [d. 1696], Rome; sold 1696 to Principe Livio Odescalchi, Duke Bracciano [1652-1713], Rome; by inheritance to his nephew, Baldassare Odescalchi-Erba [d. 1746]; sold 1721 through Pierre Crozat [1665-1740] to Philippe II, duc d'Orléans [1674-1723], Paris; by inheritance to his son, Louis, duc d'Orléans [1703-1752], Paris; by inheritance to his son, Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans [1725-1785], Paris; by inheritance to his son, Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans [1747-1793], Paris; sold 1791 with the French and Italian paintings of the Orléans collection, which figure as a group in the next three sales, to Edouard, vicomte Walkuers [or Walquers], Brussels; sold 1792 to his cousin, François Louis Joseph, comte Laborde de Méréville [d. 1801], Paris and London; on consignment until 1798 with (Jeremiah Harman, London); sold 1798 through (Michael Bryan, London) to a consortium of Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater [1736-1803], London and Worsley Hall, Lancashire, Frederick Howard, 5th earl of Carlisle [1748-1825], Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, and George Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st duke of Sutherland [1758-1833], London, Trentham Hall, Stafford, and Dunrobin Castle, Highland, Scotland.[2] (Orléans Collection sale [French and Italian paintings], Coxe, Burrell and Foster, London, 14 February 1800, no. 11, as The Portrait of the Queen of Sweden). John Maitland [d. 1831], London, Loughton Hall, Essex, and Woodford Hall, Essex; (his estate sale, Christie & Manson, London, 30 July 1831, no. 14, as Portrait of Christina, Queen of Sweden); Joseph Neeld [d. 1856], Grittleton House, Wiltshire; by inheritance to his brother, Sir John Neeld, 1st bt. [1805-1891], Grittleton House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Algernon William Neeld, 2nd bt. [1846-1900], Grittleton House; by inheritance to his brother, Sir Audley Dallas Neeld, 3rd bt. [1849-1941], Grittleton House; by inheritance to Joseph Neeld's descendant through an illegitimate daughter, Lionel William [Inigo-Jones] Neeld [d. 1956], Grittleton House; (Neeld sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 July 1945, no. 52, as Portrait of Christina of Sweden); purchased by Kaye.[3] (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London); sold 1947 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The painting also appeared in the Queen's 1662 inventory of her belongings in Rome, and in the inventory taken 1689, the year of both her death and that of Cardinal Azzolino, to whom her paintings were bequeathed. On the history of Christina's collection, see Baron Carl Nils Daniel Bildt, "Queen Christina's Pictures," The Nineteenth Century 56 (1904): 99-1003, and Christina, Queen of Sweden: A Personality of European civilization, Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1966.
[2] Provenance provided by Wildenstein to the Kress Foundation. For details about the sale of the Orléans collection, see William Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution, 2 vols., London, 1824: 1:1-216; Denys Sutton, "Aspects of British Collecting, Part III. XII: The Orléans Collection," Apollo (May 1984): 357-372; and Jordana Pomeroy, "The Orléans Collection: Its impact on the British art world," Apollo (February 1997): 26-31. Jeremiah Harman was head of a London banking house and had his own collection of paintings that was auctioned after his death in 1844.
[3] Neeld's purchase at the Maitland sale is according to an annotated auction catalogue at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, and the painting is recorded in a 1913 manuscript copy of an 1851 manuscript catalogue of the Neeld collection (see letter from Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index dated 13 March 1986 in NGA curatorial files). In a letter of 20 January 1969 to Colin Eisler (copy in NGA curatorial files), the dealer David M. Koetser writes that among the paintings he sold to the Kress Foundation was "...indirectly...Sebastian Bourdon's 'Queen Christina'." It is possible that "Kaye" was a pseudonym used by Koetser at the 1945 sale, and that he was buying for the Foundation.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/605.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1798

  • A Catalogue of the Orleans' Italian Pictures, The Lyceum in the Strand, London, 1798-1799, no. 257, as Portrait of Queen Christina.

2000

  • Sébastien Bourdon: 1616-1671, Pavillon du Musée Fabre, Montpellier; Galerie de l'Ancienne Douane, Strasbourg, 2000-2001, no. 153, repro.

2018

  • The Orléans Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, 2018-2019, no. 18, repro.

Bibliography

1808

  • Fontenay, Louis-Abel de Bonafous (Abbé de Fontenay), and Jacques Couché. Galérie du Palais-royal gravée d'après les tableaux des différentes écoles qui la composent, avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres et une description historique de chaque tableau. 3 vols. Vol. 3: École hollandaise, allemande, française. Paris, 1786-1808: 3(1808):unpaginated, repro.

1824

  • Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting. 2 vols. London, 1824: 1:156.

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:487.

1876

  • Dussieux, Louis. Les artists français à l'étranger. Paris, 1876: 585.

1886

  • Ponsonailhe, Charles. Sébastien Bourdon, sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1886: 125-127.

1896

  • Granberg, Olof. Drottning Kristinas Tafvelgalleri. Stockholm, 1896: 60, no. 241.

1897

  • Granberg, Olof. La galerie de tableaux de la Reine Christine de Suède. Stockholm, 1897: 58, no. 241.

1912

  • Thomas, T.-H. "Sébastien Bourdon, portraitiste." GBA, 4th ser., vol. 7 (1912): 10-12.

1913

  • Stryienski, Casimir. La galerie du régent, Philippe, duc d'Orleans. Paris, 1913: 99-100, 179.

1932

  • "Inventaire de la reine Christine de Suede," in Denucé, Jean. Inventories of the art collections in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries. Antwerpt, 1932: 177.

1935

  • Steneberg, Karl Eric. "The Portrait Collection of Queen Christina." The Connoisseur 95 (1935): 134.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 222, no. 99, repro., as Queen Christina of Sweden.

1955

  • Steneberg, Karl Eric. Kristinatidens Måleri. Malmö, 1955: 184-185.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 341, repro., as Queen Christina of Sweden.

1964

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. "Quelques tableaux inédits du XVIIe siècle français par Jacques Stella, Charles Mellin, Jean Tassel et Sébastien Bourdon." Art de France . vol. 4 (1964): 299 n. 14.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 19.

1968

  • Masson, Georgina. Queen Christina. London, 1968: repro. following 128.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 12, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 44, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 290-291, fig. 259.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 318, no. 419, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 65, repro.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 78 (not in the exhibition).

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. 7, 40-43, color repro.

2012

  • Feigenbaum, Gail. "Manifest Provenance." In Provenance--An Alternate History of Art. Issues and Debates. Los Angeles, 2012: 19-21, fig. 5.

Inscriptions

Typewritten label noting that the painting is from the Orleans Gallery and giving two citations for books by Buchanan and F.E. Bailey; numbers on stretcher: "55 I HO" and "471777"

Wikidata ID

Q20177372

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