The Nursemaids
Framed: 19 1/8 × 23 × 3 1/2 inches (48.58 × 58.42 × 8.89 cm)
- 119
Salon de 1765, Salon du Louvre, Paris, hors cat.
Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, Associated with A Collection from the Works of Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., and Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, January–February 1870, no. 133, as A French Family.
The Century of Mozart, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15–March 4, 1956, no. 46, The Nursemaids.
Genre, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 5–May 15, 1983, no. 18, The Nursemaids.
In this painting, Jean-Baptiste Greuze presents two nursemaids with the six small children under their care. Greuze treated the scene with humor, creating amusing details like the cat in the cradle. However, he may have intended the painting as a social critique.
In the 1700s, wealthy Parisians often sent their children to the countryside to be raised by lower-class women. This trend had come into question in the years prior to the French Revolution (1789-1799) as some philosophers believed it produced morally corrupt citizens. Greuze might be referencing this outcome by showing the poor behavior of the two boys interacting with animals.
Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1734–1793), Paris, by October 30, 1769 [1];
Jean Dubois (active 1768–1789), by December 20, 1785 [2];
Purchased from his sale, Une belle collection de tableaux des écoles flamande, hollandoise, allemande et françoise, par M. Le Brun, garde des tableaux du mgr. Comte d’Artois, ce catalogue est suivi de celui des marbres, figures de bronze, et bronzes dorés, porcelaines du Japon, de la Chine, laques, bijoux, meubles de Boule, et autres objets de curiosité, par Ph. F. Julliot, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, December 20, 1785, no. 95, as L’intérieur d’une Maison de paysan, où l’on voit une famille au nombre de sept personnes, femmes et enfans, parmi lesquels on distingue principalement et sur le devant une jeune femme assise, tenant dans ses bras un enfant à la mammelle, et près d’elle un jeune garçon debout tenant un chien en lesse, by Louis François Saubert, 1785–at least February 13, 1793 [3];
Bondon (probably Louis François Bondon, 1767–1825, Darmstadt, Germany), by January 12, 1825 [4];
His posthumous sale, Une Précieuse et Riche Collection de Tableaux Provenant de l’Étranger, Après le Décès de M. Bondon, des Trois Écoles Anciennes et Modernes, la salle Lebrun, rue de Cléry, no. 21, Paris, June 7–8, 1831, no. 81, as les Sèvreuses;
Berthault (possibly Nicolas Gilles Berthault, ca. 1751–ca. 1840, Versailles), by 1840 [5];
His posthumous sale, Une Belle Collection de Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Principalement des Ecoles Hollandaise, Flamande et Française, Miniatures, Aquarelles et Dessins De nos plus célèbres Artistes modernes, Objets de Curiosités, tels que Meubles en marqueterie, écaille et bois de rose; Bronzes dorés et non dorés, Porcelaines d’ancien Sèvres, de Chine, du Japon et de Saxe; Pendules, Ivoires et Bois sculptés, Tabatières, Boîtes et Bas-Reliefs en argent repoussé et ciselé; Objets divers en pierre dure, Bustes en marbre, Vitraux anciens et Venise, Emaux de Limoges, Terres de Bernard Palissy et Faënza, Collection considérable d’Histoire Naturelle, composée d’une suite de Coquilles marines, fluviales et terrestres; Oiseaux, Papillons indigènes et exotiques, Scarabés Reptiles, Minéraux, etc., dont la vente, Après le décès de M. Berthault, ancien Avoué, Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris,November 23–24, 1840, no. 40, as Les sevreuses;
Sir Anthony Nathan (Billy) de Rothschild, First Baronet (1810–1876), London and Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England, by 1842–January 3, 1876 [6];
Inherited by his daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Eliot Constantine Yorke (née Annie de Rothschild, 1844–1926), London and Hamble Cliff, Netley, Southampton, by 1876–November 21, 1926 [7];
Purchased from her posthumous sale, Pictures by Old Masters and some Water Colour Drawings, The Property of The Hon. Mrs. Yorke, deceased, Late of 17 Curzon Street, W. 1, and Hamble Cliff, Netley, Southampton, Most of the Old Pictures were Inherited from her Father, the Late Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bt.; Also Choice Pictures of the French School, the Property of the Rt. Hon. Viscountess Harcourt and Old Pictures and Drawings From Other Sources, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, May 6, 1927, no. 28, as Les Sevreuses , by Thomas Agnew and Sons, Inc., New York, stock no. 6685, 1927–February 10, 1931 [8];
Purchased from Thomas Agnew and Sons, Inc., through Count Antoine Frederic Adolphe Sala and Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931 [9].
NOTES:
[1] See the inscription under the engraving after the painting, “Gravées d’après le Tableau Original de mème grandeur, de Jean Baptiste Greuze Peintre du Roy/ Tiré du cabinet de Monsieur de la Reyniere; Commencé par M r. Tilliard,/ et fini par Pierre Charles Ingouf en 1769.” Jean-Baptiste Tilliard and P.-C. Ingouf, after Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Les Sevreuses , 1769, engraving, 12 5/8 x 15 3/4 in. (32 x 40 cm), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, BN, Dc-8-Fol. Reynière must have had the painting by 1769, when the engraving was announced in L’Avant-Coureur, no. 44(October 30, 1769): 689–90. John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters (London: Smith and Son, 1837), 8:411, says that the painting was “Engraved by P.C. Ingouf, 1769, from a picture then in the cabinet of M. Tilliard.” This is probably an erroneous translation of the engraving inscription.
[2] The collector was possibly Jean Dubois, a jeweler, goldsmith and art dealer, who was received by the guild on August 22, 1781. See Colin B. Bailey, Patriotic Taste: Collecting Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Paris (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 28, 252n148, and Henry Nocq, Le Poinçon de Paris: Répertoire des Maîtres-Orfèvres de la Juridiction de Paris depuis le Moyen-Âge jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe Siècle (Pairs: H. Floury, 1927), 2:103.
[3] The painting also appears in this sale, where dealer Saubert was both the seller and the buyer: Une Collection de Tableaux des Trois Écoles, Dessins, Estampes montées et en feuilles, Bibliothèques, Secrétaires, Commodes en bois d’Acajou, Bronze, Porcelaine, Bijoux, Montres à répétitions, et autres objets curieux, provenant en partie de l’Etranger (Paris: Lebrun, February 13, 1793), no. 85, as a work after Greuze, Un petit Tableau, d’après ce Maître, représentant les Sevreuses .
[4] The constituent’s name is listed as “Bondon” in the 1831 sales catalogue, but it has also been written as “Bondon père,” “Bonbon père,” or “Boudonpère.” Frits Lugt, Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques Intéressant, l’Art ou la Curiosité, vol. 2(The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1953), gives the name as “Bonbon père” and says the constituent died in Germany. Bondon is also cited as “une amateur du Midi de la France” in a May 30–June 1, 1839, sale (Lugt 15471). Louis François Bondon, a likely option for this constituent, was a goldsmith and jeweler who was born in Avignon in the south of France (called the Midi) and died in 1825 in Darmstadt, Germany.
[5] Sometimes the constituent’s name is erroneously written as “Berthaud.” We defer here to the sales catalogue from 1840 for his spelling. This constituent might be Nicolas Gilles Berthault (ca. 1751–ca. 1840), an attorney living in Versailles from 1785 until at least 1824. See marriage bans of Nicolas Gilles Berthault and Catherine Bonté, Registre de la Paroisse de Bièvre , no. 11, dated May 9, 1785. Nicolas Gilles Berthault’s residence in Versailles was documented on May 7, 1824 in Bulletin des lois de la République Française , no. 691 bis (1824): 13.
[6] John Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; In which is included a short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Nearly The Whole of Their Pictures; A Statement of the Prices at which Such Pictures Have Been Sold at Public Sales on the Continent and in England; A Reference to the Galleries and Private Collections, in which a Large Portion are at Present; And the Names of the Artists by whom They Have Been Engraved to which is added, A Brief Notice of the Scholars and Imitators of the Great Masters of the Above Schools, vol. 9 (London: Messrs. Smith, 1842), 812.
[7] The painting was possibly inherited by his wife, Louisa (née Montefiore, 1821–1910), Lady de Rothschild, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England, 1876, but the catalogue of Hon. Mrs. Eliot Constantine Yorke’s (née Annie de Rothschild) posthumous sale in 1927 says “Most of the Old Pictures were Inherited from her Father, the Late Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bt.” in the title.See Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters and some Water Colour Drawings, The Property of The Hon. Mrs. Yorke, deceased, Late of 17 Curzon Street, W. 1, and Hamble Cliff, Netley, Southampton, Most of the Old Pictures were Inherited from her Father, the Late Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bt.; Also Choice Pictures of the French School, the Property of the Rt. Hon. Viscountess Harcourt and Old Pictures and Drawings From Other Sources (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 6, 1927.
[8] The painting was sold from Yorke’s estate by direction of her niece, Hon. Marie Constance (née Adeane, 1862–1934), Lady Mallet. See Yorke’s sales catalogue, page 5. For the purchaser, see The National Gallery, London, Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd. Archive, NGA27/1/1, Picture Stock Books. Also an annotated catalogue from the Art Institute of Chicago for Yorke’s 1927 sale indicates that “Agnew” purchased the painting from the sale. Many newspapers reported that Agnew purchased the painting from the 1927 Yorke sale.
[9] Count Antoine Sala (1876–1946) was an art dealer and the representative of Thomas Agnew and Sons, Inc. in Paris; see René Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966), 255. Harold Woodbury Parsons, art advisor to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in the 1930s, was in discussion with Count Sala about purchasing the painting on behalf of the museum as early as July 8, 1930; see letter from Harold Woodbury Parsons to J. C. Nichols, NAMA trustee, July 8, 1930, NAMA curatorial files. See letter from February 4, 1931, Ernest E. Brown, secretary to Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, says the painting was “purchased through Count Antoine Sala” (emphasis added; see letter in NAMA curatorial files).
Denis Diderot, The Salon of 1765 [1765; repr., in Jacques-André Naigeon, ed., Œuvres de Denis Diderot, vol. 13 (Paris: Deterville, 1799)],194–95, as Les Sevreuses.
Troisième Lettre, à Monsieur **, Sur les Peintures, les Sculptures, et
les Gravures, exposées au Sallon du Louvre en 1765
, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Collection Deloynes, vol. 8,
nos. 108, 110, pp. 10–11 [repr., in Charles Joseph Mathon de la Cour,
Lettres à Monsieur ** sur les Peintures, les Sculptures et les
Gravures, exposées au Sallon du Louvre en 1765
(Paris: Bauche and D’houry, 1765), 58–59], as Les Sevreuses.
“Arts: Gravure,” L’Avant-Coureur, no. 44(October 30, 1769): 689–90.
“Annonces et Avis Divers,” Annonces, Affiches et Avis Divers, no. 87 (November 9, 1769): 962.
“Gravure,” Mercure de France (December 1769): 199.
“Nouvelles Littéraires,” Journal des Beaux-Arts et des Sciences 1 (February 1770): 380.
Catalogue d’une Belle Collection de Tableaux des Écoles Flamande, Hollandoise, Allemande et Françoise, par M. Le Brun, Garde des Tableaux du Mgr. Comte d’Artois, Ce Catalogue est suivi de celui des Marbres, Figures de bronze, et bronzes dorés, Porcelaines du Japon, de la Chine, Laques, Bijoux, Meubles de Boule, et autres Objets de curiosité, par Ph. F. Julliot (Paris: Hôtel de Bullion, December 20, 1785), 45, as L’intérieur d’une Maison de paysan, où l’on voit une famille au nombre de sept personnes, femmes et enfans, parmi lesquels on distingue principalement et sur le devant une jeune femme assise, tenant dans ses bras un enfant à la mammelle, et près d’elle un jeune garçon debout tenant un chien en lesse .
Catalogue d’une Collection de Tableaux des Trois Écoles, Dessins, Estampes montées et en feuilles, Bibliothèques, Secrétaires, Commodes en bois d’Acajou, Bronze, Porcelaine, Bijoux, Montres à répétitions, et autres objets curieux, provenant en partie de l’Etranger (Paris: Lebrun, February 13, 1793), 17, as Un petit tableau, d’après ce maître, représentant les Sevreuses .
Denis Diderot, Œuvres Inédites. Le Neveu de Rameau. Voyage de Hollande (Paris: J.L.J. Brière 1821), 413, as Les sevreuses.
Œuvres Complètes de Diderot (Paris: J.L.J. Brière, 1821), 8:268–69, as Les Sevreuses.
Pierre Roux, ed.,
Catalogue d’une Précieuse et Riche Collection de Tableaux Provenant de
l’Étranger, Après le Décès de M. Bondon, des Trois Écoles Anciennes et
Modernes
(Paris: Coutellier, Roux, et Le Concierge de la galerie, June 7–8, 1831),
38.
John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; In which is included a short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures; A Statement of the Prices at which such Pictures have been Sold at Public Sales on the Continent and in England; A Reference to the Galleries and Private Collections, in which a Large Portion are at Present; and the Names of the Artists by whom they have been Engraved to which is added, A Brief Notice of the Scholars and Imitators of the Great Masters of the Above Schools (London: Smith and Son, 1837), 8:411, as Les Sevreuses.
Catalogue d’Une Belle Collection de Tableaux Anciens et Modernes, Principalement des Ecoles Hollandaise, Flamande et Française, Miniatures, Aquarelles et Dessins De nos plus célèbres Artistes modernes, Objets de Curiosités, tels que Meubles en marqueterie, écaille et bois de rose; Bronzes dorés et non dorés, Porcelaines d’ancien Sèvres, de Chine, du Japon et de Saxe; Pendules, Ivoires et Bois sculptés, Tabatières, Boîtes et Bas-Reliefs en argent repoussé et ciselé; Objets divers en pierre dure, Bustes en marbre, Vitraux anciens et Venise, Emaux de Limoges, Terres de Bernard Palissy et Faënza, Collection considérable d’Histoire Naurelle [sic], composée d’une suite de Coquilles marines, fluviales et terrestres; Oiseaux, Papillons indigènes et exotiques, Scarabés Reptiles, Minéraux, etc., dont la vente, Après le décès de M. Berthault, ancien Avoué (Paris: Genevoix et Théret père, November 23–24, 1840), 11–12, as Les sevreuses .
John Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; In which is included a short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Nearly The Whole of Their Pictures; A Statement of the Prices at which Such Pictures Have Been Sold at Public Sales on the Continent and in England; A Reference to the Galleries and Private Collections, in which a Large Portion are at Present; And the Names of the Artists by whom They Have Been Engraved to which is added, A Brief Notice of the Scholars and Imitators of the Great Masters of the Above Schools, vol. 9 (London: Messrs. Smith, 1842), 812, as The Nursery.
“Works of the Great Masters: Jean-Baptiste Greuze,” Illustrated Magazine of Art 2, no. 8 (1853): 111, as Les Sevreuses.
Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated MSS., etc., etc. (London: John Murray, 1854), 2:281–82, as The Nursery.
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, “Greuze,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts13 (December 1, 1862): 520, as les Sevreuses.
Jules Renouvier, Histoire De L’Art Pendant La Revolution, Considéré Principalement Dans Les Estampes; Ouvrage Posthume. Suivi D’Une Étude Du Même Sur J. - B. Greuze, Avec Une Notice Biographique Et Une Table Par M. Anatole de Montaiglon (Paris: Vve J. Renouard, 1863), 511, as les Sevreuses.
Théodore Lejeune, Guide Théorique Et Pratique De L’Amateur De Tableaux; Études Sur Les Imitateurs Et Les Copistes Des Maitres De Toutes Les Écoles Dont Les Œuvres Forment La Base Ordinaire Des Galleries (Paris, Vve. Jules Renouard, 1864), 1:281, as Les Sevreuses.
Charles Blanc, Histoire des Peintres de Toutes les Écoles: École Française (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1865), 2:16, as Les Sevreuses.
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, “La Peinture de Greuze,” Revue du XIXe siècle 9 (October 1868): 65, as Sevreuses.
Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, Associated with A Collection from the Works of Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., and Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1870), 14, as A French Family .
Jules Assezat, ed., Œuvres Complètes De Diderot, Revues Sur Les Éditions Originales, Comprenant Ce Qui A Été Publié À Diverses Époques Et Les Manuscrits Inédits, Conservés À La Bibliothèque de l’Ermitage, Notices, Notes, Table Analytique. Étude sur Diderot et le Mouvement Philosophique Au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris: Garnier frères, 1876), 10:358–59, as Les Sevreuses.
“L’Académie des Arts de Lille,” Mémoires de la Société des Sciences de l’Agriculture et des Arts de Lille et Publications Faits par ses soins 4, no. 3 (1877): 303–04.
P. Martin, “Greuze et Diderot,” Annales de l’Académie de Macon, 2nd ser., vol. 2 (1880): 89n3, as Sevreuses.
Baron Roger Portalis and Henri Beraldi, Les Graveurs du Dix-Huitième Siècle , vol. 2, pt. 2 (Paris: Damascène Morgand et Charles Fatout, 1881), 454.
Maurice Tourneux, ed., Morceaux Choisis de D. Diderot(Paris: Charavay frères, 1881), 201, as Les Sevreuses; autre esquisse.
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, L’Art du XVIIIme Siècle,2nd ser. (Paris: G. Charpentier, 1882), 89 [repr., in Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, L’Art du XVIIIe Siècle, vol. 1, ed. Jean-Louis Cabanès (Tusson, Charente, France: Du Lérot, 2007), 255, 402n91], as Les Sevreuses .
Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le Comédien(Paris: Librairie de la Bibliothèque nationale, 1887), 179–80, as Les Sevreuses.
Ch[arles] Normand, J.-B. Greuze (Paris: L. Allison et Cie, 1892), 50, 109, as Les Sevreuses.
Gustave Bourcard, Dessins, Gouaches, Estampes et Tableaux du Dix-Huitième Siècle; Guide de l’Amateur (Paris: Damascène Morgand, 1893), 259, as Les Sevreuses.
Denis Diderot, Œuvres Choisies de Diderot; Précédées de Sa Vie par Mme de Vandeul et d’une introduction par François Tulou (Paris: Garnier frères, 1901), 2:354, as Les Sevreuses.
Alfred Picard et al., Musée Rétrospectif du Groupe I: Éducation et Enseignement à l’Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1900 à Paris: Rapport du Comité d’Installation, exh. cat. (Saint-Cloud, France: Imprimerie Belin frères, 1901), 44, as Les Sevreuses.
J[ean] Martin and Ch[arles] Masson, Le Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint et Dessiné de Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Paris: H. Piazza, 1905), no. 207, p. 16 [repr., in Camille Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Paris: H. Piazza, 1905)], as Les Sevreuses.
Camille Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Paris: H. Piazza, 1905), 88, as les Sevreuses.
Jean Martin, Œuvre de J.-B. Greuze: Catalogue raisonné, Suivi de la liste des gravures exécutées d’après ses ouvrages (Paris: G. Rapilly, 1908), no. 207, p. 16, as Les Sevreuses.
Étienne Deville, Index du Mercure de France, 1672–1832(Paris: Jean Schemit, 1910), 104, 115, as Les Sevreusesand erroneously as Les Semeuses .
Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des Ventes d’Art faites en France et à l’Étranger pendant les XVIIIme et XIXme Siècles (Paris: Maisons d’Éditions d’Œuvres Artistiques, 1911–1912), 3:358, 4:5, 7:186, as Les sevreuses.
John Rivers, Greuze and His Models (London: Hutchinson, 1912), 272, as Les Sévreuses [sic].
J. J. Mahéo, “Chroniques de la Semaine: Bibliographie,” Revue Contemporaine , no. 74 (March 23, 1913): 180.
Louis Hautecœur, Greuze (Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 1913), 58, as Sevreuses.
Gemälde alter und neuer Meister Handzeichnungen, Aquarelle, Ölstudien aus Freiherrlichem und anderem Besitz (Berlin: Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, April 30–May 1, 1916), 14.
Georges Giacometti, Le Statuaire Jean-Antoine Houdon et Son Époque (1741–1828) (Paris: Jouve et Cie, 1918), 1:250.
Teekeningen, Gravuren en Etsen, Topographie in Teekening en Prent: Verzamelingen Mr. C. P. Donket, notaris te Hoorn en S. Wigersma te Leeuwarden (Amsterdam: R.W.P. De Vries, March 11–13, 1919), 27.
[Augustin] Cabanès, Mɶurs intimes du Passé,6th ser. (Paris: Albin Michel, [1920]), 232–33.
Versteigerung einer Sammlung von Ölgemälden, Aquarellen und Kupferstichen, sowie einer kleinen Kunstbibliothek, alter Wiener Privatbesitz nebst einigen Beiträgen (Vienna: C.J. Wawra, May 10, 1922), 34.
François Monod and Louis Hautecœur, Les Dessins de Greuze Conservés à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Pétersbourg (Paris: Éditions Albert Morancé, 1922), 11, 15, 25–27, 30, 47, as Les Sevreuses.
Beatrice A. Waldram, Greuze, 1725–1805 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1923), 95, as Les Sevreuses.
François Courboin, Histoire Illustrée de la Gravure en France: De 1600 a [sic] 1800 (Paris: Maurice Le Garrec, 1924), 2:91.
Camille Mauclair, Greuze et Son Temps (Paris: Albin Michel, 1926), 180–81, as Les sevreuses.
A.C.R. Carter, “Forthcoming Auctions: Pallavicini Collections and Others,” Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs50, no. 289 (April 1927): li, as Les Sevreuses.
“The Sale Room: Rothschild Pictures and Furniture,” Times(London), no. 44,553 (April 11, 1927): 11, as Les Sevreuses.
“Christie, Manson and Woods,” Times(London), no. 44,559 (April 19, 1927): 19, as Les Sevreuses.
A.C.R. Carter, “Forthcoming Auction Sales: The Promise of May,” Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 50, no. 290 (May 1927): xlix, as Les Sevreuses.
Catalogue of Pictures by Old Masters and some Water Colour Drawings, The Property of The Hon. Mrs. Yorke, deceased, Late of 17 Curzon Street, W. 1, and Hamble Cliff, Netley, Southampton, Most of the Old Pictures were Inherited from her Father, the Late Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bt.; Also Choice Pictures of the French School, the Property of the Rt. Hon. Viscountess Harcourt and Old Pictures and Drawings From Other Sources (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 6, 1927), 7, as Les Sevreuses .
“The Sale Room: Old French Pictures,” Times(London), no. 44,575 (May 7, 1927): 9, as Les Sevreuses.
“L’Art et la Curiosité: Les grandes ventes à Londres,” Le Figaro (May 16, 1927): 8, as Les Sevreuses.
“À l’Étranger Grande-Bretagne,” La Renaissance de l’Art Français et des Industries de Luxe (June 1927): 303, as Les Sevreuses.
Art Prices Current: A Record of Sale Prices at the Principal London Auction Rooms from October 1926 to July 1927 (London: Art Trade Press Ltd., 1927), 6:273, as Les Sevreuses.
Possibly M[inna] K. P[owell], “Art: Large Crowd at Art Institute Sees Seven Canvases Under Consideration for the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and H. A. Botkin’s Ultra-Modern Water Colors,” Kansas City Times 94, no. 10 (January 12, 1931): 6.
“A Big Gallery Addition: Rembrandt and Hals Paintings to Nelson Group,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 148 (February 12, 1931): 3.
Probably “Half-Million for Art: A Rembrandt in New Purchases for Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 156 (February 20, 1931): 3.
“Kansas City Gets $1,000,000 Art Here: William Rockhill Nelson Trust Buys Paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt and Others. Guelph Objects Included Treasures to Be Placed in New Structure Being Built by Publisher’s Endowment,” New York Times80, no. 26,690(February 20, 1931): 16.
“Add Seven Art Works: Group for Nelson Gallery on View at Institute,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 182 (March 18, 1931): 15, as Les Sevreuses or The Weaning .
“Camera Records News Events Here and in Other Parts of the World,” Kansas City Journal-Post , no. 284 (March 18, 1931): 26, (repro.), as Les Sevreuses.
“Art,” Kansas City Times 94, no. 67 (March 19, 1931): 7, as Weaning .
Kansas City Star 51, no. 193 (March 29, 1931), 6(D), (repro.), as Les Sevreuses, or The Weaning.
“What to See In Kansas City: A guide to principal Points of Interest Presented in the Style of A Baedeker,” Kansas City Star52, no. 101 (December 27, 1931): 3C, as Les Sevreuses.
“Treasure in Lore of Art: ‘Read,’ says Parsons to Those Who Would Appreciate Works,” Kansas City Times 95, no. 10 (January 12, 1932): 2.
“Nelson Gallery of Art Special Number,” Art Digest 8, no. 5 (December 1, 1933): 13, 21, as The Nurses.
“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 28, 30, as The Nurses .
Minna K. Powell, “The First Exhibition of the Great Art Treasures: Paintings and Sculpture, Tapestries and Panels, Period Rooms and Beautiful Galleries Are Revealed in the Collections Now Housed in the Nelson-Atkins Museum,” Kansas City Star 54, no. 84 (December 10, 1933): 4C, as The Nurses.
Luigi Vaiani, “Art Dream Becomes Reality with Official Gallery Opening at Hand: Critic Views Wide Collection of Beauty as Public Prepares to Pay its First Visit to Museum,” Kansas City Journal-Post, no. 187 (December 11, 1933): 7.
Paul V. Beckley, “Art News,” Kansas City Journal-Post, no. 193 (December 17, 1933): 2C.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 41, 137, as The Nurses.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 40–41, 46, 168, (repro.), as The Nursemaids.
“French Art is Topic: Sixth in Gallery Lecture Series to be Given Tomorrow; Rare Brocades and Silks Will Be Discussed by Paul Gardner in Session on Wednesday,”Kansas City Star68, no. 61 (November 17, 1947): 16.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 55.
“The Century of Mozart, January 15 through March 4, 1956,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 1, no. 1 (January 1956): 28, as The Nursemaids.
Isabel Stevenson Monro and Kate M. Monro, Index to Reproductions of European Paintings: A guide to pictures in more than three hundred books (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1956), 263, as The nursemaids.
Denis Diderot,Salons, ed. Jean Seznec and Jean Adhémar (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), 2:7, 37, 160, as Les Sevreuses.
Gerald Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste: The Rise and Fall of the Picture Market, 1760–1960 (New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1961), 335, as Les sevreuses .
Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912 (New York: Burt Franklin, 1965), 1:448, as A French Family.
Yves Bruad and Michèle Hébert, Inventaire du Fonds Français: Graveurs du XVIII e Siècle (Paris: Bibilothèque nationale, 1970), 11:609.
Ralph T. Coe, “The Baroque and Rococo in France and Italy,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 539 [repr., in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 71], as The Nursemaids.
Anita Brookner, Greuze: The rise and fall of an eighteenth-century phenomenon (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1972), 64, 106, as Les Sevreuses .
Carol Duncan, “Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in French Art,” Art Bulletin 55, no. 4 (December 1973): 576–77, (repro.) [repr., in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 209–10, (repro.)], as The Nursemaids .
Phyllis Hattis, Four Centuries of French Drawings in The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1977), 215, (repro.), as Les sevreuses.
Else Marie Bukdahl, Diderot Critique d’Art (Copenhague: Rosenkilde et Bagger, 1980), 1:209–10, 283n311, (repro.), as Les Sevreusesand The Nursemaids.
Ross E. Taggart and Laurence Sickman, Genre, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 12, as The Nursemaids .
Denis Diderot, Salon de 1765: Édition critique et Annotée, ed. Else Marie Bukdahl and Annette Lorenceau (Paris: Hermann, 1984), 201–02, (repro.), as Les Sevreuses.
Greuze et Diderot: Vie familiale et éducation dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIème siècle, exh. cat. (Clermont-Ferrand, France: Conservation des Musées d’Art de la ville de Clermont-Ferrand, 1984), 17–18, 58–59, 118, as Les sevreuses .
Patricia Donohue,Nursing: The Finest Art; An Illustrated History(St. Louis, MO: C. V. Mosby Company, 1985), 6, (repro.), as The Nursemaids.
Ursula Hilberath,
“ce sexe est sûr du nous trouver sensible”: Studien zu
Weiblichkeitsentwürfen in der französischen Malerei der Aufklärungszeit
(1733–1789)
(Alfter, Germany: VDG, 1993), 112–13, 395, (repro.), as
Les Sevreuses
.
Allan H. Pasco,
Sick Heroes: French Society and Literature in the Romantic Age,
1750–1850
(Exeter, Devon, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1997), 30, (repro.), as
Les Sevreuses (The Nursemaids).
Colin B. Bailey, Patriotic Taste: Collecting Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Paris (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 211, 303n35, as copy after Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Wetnurses.
Edgar Munhall, Greuze the Draftsman, exh. cat. (London: Merrell,
2002), 34, 115–16, 118, (repro.), as after Jean-Baptiste Greuze,
The Dry Nurses (Les Sevreuses)
.
Pierre Sanchez, Dictionnaire des Artistes Exposant dans les Salons des XVII et XVIIIeme Siècles à Paris et en Province, 1673–1800 (Dijon: L’Échelle de Jacob, 2004), 2:788, as Les Serveuse[sic].
Gaëtane Maës, Les Salons de Lille de l’Ancien Régime à la Restauration (1773–1820) (Dijon: L’Échelle de Jacob, 2004), 228, as Les Sevreuses.
Emma Barker, Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), ix, 118–19, 271n11, 271n14, (repro.), as after Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Les Sevreuses.
Anja Müller, ed., Fashioning Childhood in the Eighteenth Century: Age and Identity (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006), 119–22, as a copy after Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Les Sevreuses.
“Jean-Baptiste Greuze,” Bénézit Dictionary of Artists (October 31, 2011): https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00078889 , erroneously as Waitresses.
Perrin Stein, “Greuze’s ‘L’Accordée de village’: a rediscovered première pensée,” Burlington Magazine 155, no. 1320 (March 2013): 162, as The wetnurses.
Richard Rand, “Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Nursemaids, ca. 1765,” catalogue entry and Mary Schafer, “Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Nursemaids, ca. 1765,” technical 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, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.316.5407 and https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.316.2088.
Emmanuelle Brugerolles and David Guillet, La
Nourrice et l’enfant: De Greuze à Daumier (Paris: Editions Le Passage, forthcoming September 2025).
