Portrait of Marie Thérèse Diane Andrault (née Maignard de la Vaupalière, 1768–1790), Comtesse de Langeron
Framed: 59 1/2 × 47 1/8 × 4 1/8 inches (151.13 × 119.7 × 10.48 cm)
- 123
The Century of Mozart, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15–March 4, 1956, no. 21, erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupalière, Cômtesse [sic] de Langeron.
A Beethoven Festival: Art in the Time of Beethoven, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 29–June 4, 1978, no. 1, as by Circle of Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Comtesse de Langeron.
Those Beguiling Women, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 27–October 30, 1983, no. 24, as by Rose Ducreux, Diane de la Vaupalière, Cômtesse de Langeron.
The sitter’s husband, Alexandre Louis Andrault, comte de Langeron (1763–1831), Paris, Saint Petersburg, and Odessa, 1790–1831 [1];
Probably inherited by his brother-in-law, Aimé Philippe Auguste Jacques de La Cour, marquis de Balleroy (1763–1840), Château deBalleroy, Calvados, France, 1831–1840 [2];
Presumably by descent to his son, Auguste-François-Joseph de La Cour, marquis de Balleroy (1796–1875), Paris, April 3, 1840–1875;
Presumably by descent to his grandson, Marie-Honoré-Jacques de La Cour, marquis de Balleroy, (1870–1948), Château deBalleroy, Calvados, France, and Paris, 1875–June 26, 1948 [3];
By descent to his son, Philippe-Charles-Henri de La Cour, marquis de Balleroy (1898–1957), Paris and Château de Balleroy, Calvados, France, June 26, 1948–September 28, 1954;
Purchased from Philippe-Charles-Henri de La Cour, marquis de Balleroy, through Mary Coggeshall Kuhn, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1954.
NOTES
[1] The sitter, Marie ThérèseDiane Andrault, Comtesse de Langeron (née Maignard de la Vaupalière, 1768–1790), died around the time of the painting, and the portrait may have been posthumous. It is not clear who commissioned it, possibly her parents, Charles Étienne Pierre Marie Maignard, marquis de la Vaupalière (1731–1816), and Diane Jacqueline Josèphe Henriette de Clermont d’Amboise (1733–1804), or it may have been commissioned by her husband, the comte de Langeron. He was fighting in the Russo-Turkish War beginning in May 1790, around the time of the portrait and his wife’s death. He never returned to France. The portrait, on the other hand, undoubtedly remained in France, and after the death of the Comte in 1831, it was inherited by the sitter’s brother-in-law. See letter from Philippe-Charles-Henri de La Cour, Marquis de Balleroy, translated by Mary Coggeshall Kuhn, to Patrick Kelleher, NAMA, September 18, 1954, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] See note 1.
[3] The painting was kept at 35, avenue Montaigne, Paris, until 1940, when the Marquis de Balleroy transferred it to the Château de Balleroy for safekeeping during World War II. See De La Cour to Kelleher, NAMA, September 18, 1954, NAMA curatorial files.
The son of Auguste François Joseph de La Cour, Albert Felix Justin de la Cour de Balleroy, died on August 10, 1872, before his father was deceased. Therefore, the painting probably passed to Albert’s only son, Marie Honoré Jacques de la Cour, the next Marquis de Balleroy.
“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: October–December 1954,” Art Quarterly 18, no. 2(Summer 1955): 200, 203, (repro.), erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupalière, Comtesse de Langeron.
“New Acquisition,” Gallery News(The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 22, no. 7 (April 1955): unpaginated, (repro.), as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Comtesse de Langeron.
Winifred Shields, “Glamour of an Earlier France Caught in a Gallery Portrait: The Beautiful Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Countess de Langeron, Was the Wife of a Noted Soldier, Who Later Helped Defeat Napoleon,” Kansas City Star 75, no. 196 (April 1, 1955): 28, (repro.), erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Countess de Langeron.
“Paintings in Mozart Exhibition To Reflect Spirit of an Era: Show of Eighteenth Century Works, Also Including Sculptures and Decorative Items, Will Be Part of the City’s Celebration of Composer’s Birth,” Kansas City Star 76, no. 104 (December 30, 1955): 16.
“Special Exhibition: The Century of Mozart,”Gallery News(The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 23, no. 6 (March 1956): unpaginated, erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Countess de Langeron .
“The Century of Mozart: January 15 through March 4, 1956,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 1, no. 1, exh. cat. (January 1956): 10, 26, 53, 88–89, (repro.), erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupalière, Cômtesse de Langeron .
Jan Dickerson, “Rare Gifts by Kansas Citians, New Purchases and Loans in Nelson Gallery Exhibit,” Kansas City Star 79, no. 81 (December 7, 1958): F[1], erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Comtesse de Langeron.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts , 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 116, 260, (repro.), erroneously as by Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupalière, Comtesse de Langeron.
Nahum Tschacbasov, ed., Teachers Manual for the Study of Art History and Related Courses: Derived from the American Library Compendium and Index of World Art, and Including All Media—Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and the Minor Arts, from the Paleolithic to the Present (New York: American Library Color Slide, 1964), 147, erroneously as by Jacques-Louis David, Portr. of Diane de la Vaupalière.
Erwin Ottomar Christensen, A Guide to Art Museums in the United States (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1968), 210, erroneously as by Jacques-Louis David, Diana de la Vaupalière, Comtesse de Langeron.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri , vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 152, 258, (repro.), as by Circle of Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupalière, Comtesse de Langeron .
A Beethoven Festival: Art in the Time of Beethoven, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1978), 11, as by Circle of Jacques Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere[sic], Comtesse de Langeron.
Ross E. Taggart, Those Beguiling Women, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 8, as by Rose Ducreux, Diane de la Vaupalière, Comtesse de Langeron .
Joseph Baillio, “Une artiste méconnue: Rose Adélaïde Ducreux,” L’Œil , no. 399 (October 1988): 22, (repro.), as by Rose Adélaïde Ducreux, Comtesse de Langeron, née Diane de La Vaupalière .
Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings: From the Early Renaissance to the Present Day (London: Routledge, 1992), 2: 600, erroneously as by Jacques-Louis David, Portrait of Diane de Vaupalière, comtesse de Langeron.
Patricia J. Fidler, “New at the Nelson: Painting by Noted 18 th Century Artist Acquired,” Newsletter(The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art) (June 1995): 2, (repro.), as by Rose Ducreux, Portrait of Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Comtesse de Langeron.
Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A History(Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2020), 196, erroneously as by Jacques-Louis David, Diane de la Vaupaliere [sic], Countess de Langeron.
Collection Hubert Guerrand-Hermès, L’Hôtel de Lannion (Paris: Sotheby’s, December 14, 2023), under lot 282, https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/collection-hubert-guerrand-hermes-lhotel-de-lannion/portrait-of-the-countess-de-langeron-nee-diane-de?locale=en.
Joseph Baillio, “Attributed to Rose Adélaïde Ducreux, Portrait of Marie Thérèse Diane Andrault (née Maignard de la Vaupalière, 1768–1790), Comtesse de Langeron, ca. 1790,” catalogue entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.404.5407.
