Portrait of Joachim Lebreton
Framed: 36 x 30 1/2 inches (91.44 x 77.47 cm)
- 123
Salon de l’an IV, 1795, Musée du Louvre, Paris, no. 236, as Le C. Lebreton chef des bureaux des Musées a l’instruction publique.
The International Fine Art Fair, The Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, May 13-17, 1994, Booth D6, as Portrait of Joachim Lebreton.
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 21-August 20, 2017, no. 55, as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Probably given by the artist to the sitter, Joachim Lebreton (1760-1819), Paris, 1795-1819 [1];
Probably to his wife, Anne-Julie Lebreton (née d’Arcet, 1772-1857), Paris, 1819;
To her daughter, Juliette Cloquet (née Lebreton, 1800-1842), Paris, by 1842;
To her daughter, Marie Lévesque (née Cloquet, d. ca. 1881), Paris, by 1881 [2];
By descent to her daughter, Louise-Henriette Marin (née Lévesque, 1858-1937), Paris, by 1881;
To her son, Victor-Paul Marin (d. ca. 1929), Paris, by 1929;
Inherited by one of his nephews, Jules or Charles Amiot, by 1929-July 2, 1993 [3];
Sold by Jules or Charles Amiot at Tableaux Anciens et du XIXème Siècle, Christie’s Monaco S. A. M., Monte Carlo, December 4, 1993, lot 38, erroneously as Portrait de Jean d’Arcet;
With Didier Aaron, Inc., Paris, as Portrait de Joachim le Breton, by May 13, 1994-November 21, 1994;
Purchased from Didier Aaron, Inc., Paris, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1994.
Notes:
[1] When the portrait first entered the art market with Christie’s in 1993, it was mistakenly identified as a portrait of Jean d’Arcet, the father-in-law of Joachim Lebreton. Christie’s is the first to suggest the painting was in the collection of Jean d’Arcet, but it seems more likely that the painting would have been in the collection of the sitter, Joachim Lebreton (1760-1819), and afterwards passed to his wife, Anne-Julie d’Arcet. Labille-Guiard most likely gave this portrait to Lebreton in appreciation for his assistance in rebuilding the artist’s shattered career after the Revolution (see correspondence from Patricia Telles, Postdoctoral student from Coimbra University CEAACP, Borba, Portugal, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, September 17, 2017, NAMA curatorial file). The painting was not part of the group of art which Lebreton brought to Rio de Janeiro (now in the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes de Rio) in 1816. Therefore, the painting likely remained in Paris with his wife, Anne-Julie Lebreton.
[2] Marie Cloquet’s birthdate is unknown, but she married Edme-Henri Levesque on November 8, 1853. Marie Cloquet was the daughter of Jules-Germain Cloquet (1790-1883), a celebrated doctor, and his first wife, Juliette Lebreton, rather than the daughter of Cloquet and his second wife, Frances-Mary Corney, whom he married in 1846. See Pierre C. Berteau, “De Jules Cloquet aux Flaubert,” www.chu-rouen.fr (Accessed October 6, 2017), https://www.chu-rouen.fr/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/De-Jules-Cloquet-aux-Flaubert-Dr.-Pierre-Berteau-seance-GHHR-5-novembre-2008.pdf.
[3] The Marin family’s last name is often misspelled as Morin, as it is in both the Christie’s and Didier Aaron catalogues. Further research has shown that “Marin” is the correct spelling. Victor-Paul Marin died ca. 1929 without an heir. He and his wife had never drawn up a marriage contract. As a result, his two nephews, Jules and Charles Amiot, and godson, M. Renaud, inherited his property. Charles Amiot was a minor at the time; Jules Amiot was of an age to represent himself legally. The bulk of Victor-Paul Marin’s estate was left to his godson, M. Renaud. See “Certificat de propriété,” Supplément au Journal du Notariat (April 25, 1929): 55-56. The Christie’s 1993 catalogue specifies that the painting came to them from a nephew of the son of “Madame Paul Morin [sic]”. This was probably either Jules or Charles Amiot.
Christie’s Monaco had the painting by July 2, 1993, when they began auctioning off items that belonged to the d’Arcet family.
Musée du Louvre, Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, dessins, modèles, etc.: exposées dans le Grand Sallon [sic] du Muséum au Louvre (Paris: Imprimerie de la Veuve Hérissant, 1795), 33 [repr. in H. W. Janson, ed., Catalogues of the Paris Salons 1673 to 1881, vol. 7, Paris Salons de 1793, 1795 (New York: Garland, 1977)], as Le C. Lebreton chef des bureaux des Musées, à l’Instruction publique.
Jules Renouvier, Histoire de l'art pendant la Révolution, considéré principalement dans les estampes (Paris: Veuve Jules Renouard, 1863), 360, as C. Lebreton.
Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie and Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire général des artistes de l’école française depuis l’origine des arts du dessin jusqu’à nos jours, vol. 1 (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1882), 718, as Portrait du citoyen Lebreton, chef des bureaux des musées.
Spire Blondel, L'Art pendant la Révolution: Beaux-arts, arts décoratifs, par Spire Blondel (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1887), 58, as le citoyen Lebreton.
Henry Jouin, Joachim Lebreton, premier secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des beaux-arts (Paris: Bureaux de l'Artiste, 1892), 23n1, as citoyen Lebreton, chef des bureaux des Musées, à l’Instruction publique.
Roger Portalis, “Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) (quatrième et dernier article),” Gazette des beaux-arts 27, no. 3 (1902): 345, as Citoyen Lebreton.
Roger Portalis, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) (Paris: Imprimerie Georges Petit, 1902), 79, 92, as Portrait du citoyen Lebreton, chef des Bureaux des musées, à l’Instruction publique.
Arnauld Doria, Gabrielle Capet (Paris: Les Beaux-arts, Édition d'études et de documents, 1934), 23.
Paul Ratouis de Limay, “Une portraitiste du XVIIIème siècle, Madame Labille-Guiard (1749-1803),” Le Dessin; revue d’art, d’éducation et d’enseignement 13, no. 3 (1947): 108, as Joachim Lebreton.
Anne Marie Passez, Adélaide Labille-Guiard 1749-1803: Biographie et Catalogue raisonné de son œuvre (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1973), no. 139, pp. 8, 40, 271, as Portrait de Joachim Lebreton.
Jean-François Heim, Claire Béraud, and Philippe Heim, Les Salons de peinture de la Révolution française, 1789-1799 (Paris: C. A. C. Sarl. Édition, 1989), 248, as Le C. Lebreton, chef des bureaux des Musées, à l’Instruction publique (n°236).
Dessins de maître anciens: dessins italiens de la collection d'un amateur français, dessins français de la collection Marcel Puech (Monaco: Christie's Monaco S.A.M., July 2, 1993), 169, (repro.), erroneously as Portrait de Monsieur Darcet.
Tableaux Anciens et du XIXème Siècle (Monte Carlo: Christie’s Monaco S.A.M., December 4, 1993), 38-39, 42-43, (repro.), erroneously as Portrait de Jean d’Arcet (1749-1803), de buste et assis, portant un gilet rayé rouge et une veste marron.
Didier Aaron, Catalogue (Paris: Didier Aaron, 1994-1995), unpaginated, (repro.), as Portrait de Joachim Le Breton.
Peter H. Falk and Andrea Ansell Bien, eds., Art Price Index International ’95: 1993-1994 Auction Season, vol. 2, L-Z (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1994), 1372, erroneously as Portrait de Jean d’Arcet (1749-1803), de buste et assis.
Enrique Mayer, International Auction Records: January 1 through December 31, 1993; Prints, Drawings, Watercolors, Paintings, Sculpture (Lausanne, Switzerland: Editions Acatos, 1994), 139, 657, erroneously as Portrait Jean-d’Arcet (1749-1803), de buste et assis, portant un gilet rayé rouge et une veste marron.
G. Mohr, M. Wienert, and S. Gerum, eds., Kunstpreis Jahrbuch 1994: Deutsche und Internationale Auktionsergebnisse, vol. 49, no. 1 (Munich: Weltkunst Verlag GmbH, 1994), 742, erroneously as Bildnis Jean d‘Arcet.
The International Fine Art Fair: the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City, exh. cat. (London: International Fine Art Fair, 1994), 26, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Lebreton.
Patricia J. Fidler, “New at the Nelson: Painting by Noted 18th Century Artist Acquired,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (June 1995): 2, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Roger Ward, “Recent acquisitions of painting, sculpture and decorative arts at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” The Burlington Magazine, supplement, 137, no. 1112 (November 1995): 785, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Philippe Bordes, Portraiture in Paris around 1800: Cooper Penrose by Jacques-Louis David, exh. cat. (San Diego: Timken Museum of Art, 2003), 59-60.
Margaret A. Oppenheimer, The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration (Northampton, MA: Smith College Museum of Art, 2005), 22, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Mary Sprinson de Jesús, “Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s Pastel Studies of the Mesdames de France,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008): 172n35.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 108, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Laura Auricchio, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009), 100-01, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Lebreton.
Bénézit Dictionary of Artists, vol. 8, Koort-Maekava (Paris: Éditions Gründ, 2006), 245, as Portrait of Citizen Lebreton, Chief Administrator of the Museums of the Ministry of Education.
Christophe Marcheteau de Quinçay, Marie-Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818): une virtuose de la miniature, exh. cat. (Ghent: Éditions Snoeck, 2014), 19, 67, 94n115, (repro.), as Portrait de Joachim Lebreton.
Patricia Delayti Telles, Retrato entre baionetas: prestígio, política e saudades na pinture do retrato em Portugal e no Brasil, entre 1804 e 1834 (Évora, Portugal: Universidade de Évora, 2015), 225, LIII, (repro.), as Retrato de Joachim Lebreton.
Yuriko Jackall et al., America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings, exh. cat. (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 2017), 237, 274, 328, (repro.), as Portrait of Joachim Le Breton.
Patricia Delayti Telles, O Cavaleiro Brito e o Conde da Barca: dois diplomatas portugueses e a missão francesa de 1816 ao Brasil (Lisbon: Documenta, 2017), 18, 92, 179, (repro.), as Retrato de Joachim Lebreton.
Martine Lacas, Peintres femmes, 1780-1830: Naissance d'un combat, exh. cat. (Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Beaux-arts Editions, 2021), 189, 193, (repro.), as Portrait de Joachim Lebreton.
Laura Auricchio, “Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Portrait of Joachim Lebreton, 1795,” catalogue entry and Mary Schafer, “Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Portrait of Joachim Lebreton, 1795,” technical entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, ed., (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2022), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.416.
