La Pensée, 1877/1891

Not on View

Medium

marble

Dimensions

overall: 89 x 53.5 x 24.8 cm (35 1/16 x 21 1/16 x 9 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund

Accession Number

1986.27.1

Artists / Makers

Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu (artist) French, 1833 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

incised on self-base beneath the books: h.chapu

Provenance

Possibly the estate of the artist's widow, Marie-Euphémie-Mélanie Cozette de Rubempré [1847-1919].[1] (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 February 1971, no. 48).[2] Private collection, Pennsylvania;[3] (Pegasus Fine Arts, New York, by April 1986); purchased 7 May 1986 by NGA.

[1] Verbal communication via the late Joseph J. Wade from his unnamed source, who obtained it by exchange from yet another unnamed dealer, who claimed it was drawn from the "estate of Chapu's widow." (Letter to Suzanne G. Lindsay from the late Joseph J. Wade [then owner of Pegasus Fine Arts], dated 14 November 1990 [in NGA curatorial files]). No estate sale for either the artist or the widow is documented. According to Annie-Claire Lussiez, Director, Musée Henri Chapu, Le Mée (verbal communication), "a few objects" descended through their adopted daughter, Henriette Bréauté (Madame Gaston Bréauté), but no systematic record of them exists. The death announcement for Madame Chapu is dated 9 April 1919 (Archives, Musée Henri Chapu, Le Mée).

[2] A speculative identification. The auction catalogue entry, which is not illustrated, describes a marble of the same dimensions (90 x 54 cms.). Thus far, the National Gallery relief is the only one that conforms to those specifications. The National Gallery's source for the marble, the late Joseph Wade (see note 1), claimed to have learned of the sale only after the marble entered the museum collection and likewise felt it was the Hôtel Drouot marble.

[3] According to a dealer's brochure from Pegasus Fine Arts, New York (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Chapu, Marie-Euphémie-Mélanie Cozette de Rubenpré
Drouot, Hôtel
Pegasus Fine Arts
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)

Bibliography

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 44, repro.

1999: Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

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: 88-91, color repro.