Still Life with Guelder Roses
Framed: 24 1/2 × 21 1/4 × 3 5/8 inches (62.23 × 53.98 × 9.21 cm)
- 127
Possibly Exposition de Tableaux et Dessins: Quelques Maîtres du 18e et du 19e siècle au profit de la Société des Amis du Louvre et de l’Œuvre de l’Enfance malheureuse, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1938, no. 5, as Vase de fleurs.
Les chefs-d’Œuvre des Collections Françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération Artistique et les Services Alliés, Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, June–August 1946, no. 50, as Les Boules de neige.
Discriminating Thieves: Nazi-Looted Art and Restitution, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 26, 2019– January 26, 2020, no cat.
Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art, The Jewish Museum, New York, August 20, 2021–January 9, 2022, no. 2, as Still Life with Guelder Roses.
Pierre Bonnard was a member of the Nabis, a group of young artists that emerged in the 1890s. They produced intimate paintings of domestic subjects in a flat, decorative style that was heavily influenced by Japanese art and the work of Paul Gauguin.
In 1892, when Bonnard started this still life, he emphasized surface patterns and simplified, flattened forms. Nearly 40 years later, when his style had become much more painterly, he added brushstrokes of pale yellow to the blossoms, creating a sense of three-dimensionality that was intentionally absent from the earlier composition.
Given by the artist to Bonis Charancle, Paris [1];
Probably Georges Lurcy (né Léon Georges Levy, 1891–1953), Paris [2];
David David-Weill (1871–1952), Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, inventory no. D.W. 98/33, 1933–September 4, 1943 [3];
Confiscated from David-Weill by German National Socialist (Nazi) forces, by September 4, 1943–May 1945 [4];
Recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point, May 1945–March 27, 1946 [5];
Returned by Allied forces to France, March 27, 1946;
Restituted by France to David-Weill, by June 1946–July 7, 1952 [6];
Inherited by his wife, Flora (née Raphaël, 1878–1970) David-Weill, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, July 7, 1952–April 3, 1970;
By inheritance to her heirs, April 3, 1970–June 9, 1972 [7];
Purchased from the David-Weill heirs, through Galerie Schmit, Paris, by Herman R. (1913–2006) and Helen (née Delano, 1914–2004) Sutherland, Mission Hills, KS, June 9, 1972–2004;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2004.
NOTES
[1] For constituent, see Jean Dauberville and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard: Catalogue Raisonne de l’Œuvre Peint, 1888–1905 (Paris: Éditions J et H. Bernheim-Jeune, 1965), no. 31, p. 1:107. It is uncertain if the spelling of the collector’s name is Bonis Charancle, Boris Charancle or Denis Charancle.
For “Boris,” see Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, November 29, 1972), 30. For “Denis,” see Collection D. David-Weill: Dessins et Tableaux, Histoire de Paris et de ses environs . . . Sujets Divers, Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Peintures des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles; Tableaux Modernes (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, June 9–10, 1971), lot 291.
The collector may have been Paul Marc Joseph Marie Antoine Bonis-Charancle (1884–1929), who was an amateur French artist and exhibited alongside Bonnard at the Société des Artistes Independent in 1905. Bonnard inscribed a painting (Rooftops, ca. 1897; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1962.23) with “Bonnard à Paul Bonis,” and this might be the same individual. Another possible candidate is French playwright Marc Bonis-Charancle (1859–1939), who ran in the same circle as Bonnard’s brother-in-law and composer, Claude Terrasse (1867–1923).
[2] When the painting was removed from the salt mines at Alt Aussee and inventoried at the Munich Central Collecting Point on June 26, 1945 (see note 4 below), it was recorded as bearing the following identifying mark, which is no longer extant: Georges Levy [sic] / 42, Bd de Clichy. See Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany, B323/649, MCCP Restitution card file, Munich no. 887.
In 1940, the Lurcys moved from Paris to the United States, where they continued to collect art. Documentation and paperwork regarding their art collection during this period appears to be lost; see correspondence from Aaron Smithers, Special Collections Research and Instruction Librarian, Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill, NC, to Danielle Hampton Cullen, NAMA, September 9, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.
[3] The date of the David-Weill purchase was provided by Nathalie Petitdidier on behalf of Michel David-Weill in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, October 22, 2015, NAMA curatorial file.
[4] See Rose Valland, “Recueil des rapports de Rose Valland au directeur des musées nationaux, 1941–1944 (Précédé d’un texte de J. Jaujard sur ‘les activités dans la Résistance de Mlle Valland’),” September 4, 1943, Ministré de la Culture, D.M.F., Archives des Musées Nationaux, Paris, Folder 93, R.32.1.
The painting was inventoried at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg and assigned number D.W. Mod. 38. It was later transferred to the Nazi warehouse in Nikolsburg Castle on November 15, 1943, and subsequently moved to the salt mine at Alt Aussee, Austria, where it was assigned number 772. See Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany, B323/300, Transporte des Einsatzstabes Reichsleiter Rosenberg in Bergungsdepots nach Schloss Kogl, Amstetten/Seisenegg, Nikolsburg, Füssen, Buxheim, Lager Peter/Alt-Aussee: Kisten–Verzeichnesse David Weill. See also Rose Valland, “Recueil des rapports de Rose Valland au directeur des musées nationaux, 1941–1944 (Précédé d’un texte de J. Jaujard sur ‘les activités dans la Résistance de Mlle Valland’),” November 15, 1943, Ministré de la Culture, D.M.F., Archives des Musées Nationaux, Paris, Folder 126, R.32.1.
[5] Following the discovery of the artworks in the Alt Aussee salt mine by Allied forces in May 1945, the painting entered the Munich Central Collecting Point on June 26, 1945, where it was assigned inventory number 887. It was repatriated to France on March 27, 1946. Copies of the ERR and Munich property cards are also available in the NAMA curatorial file.
[6] David-Weill lent the painting to the exhibition, Les chefs-d’oeuvre des collections privées françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération Artistique et les services alliés, held at the Orangerie des Tuileries, June–August 1946.
[7] The painting was offered for sale at Collection D. David-Weill: Dessins et Tableaux, Histoire de Paris et de ses environs . . . Sujets Divers . . . Tableaux Modernes, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 9–10, 1971, lot 295, as Fleurs dans un vase, Boules de neige, but it failed to sell. See email from Laurence Mille, Drouot Documentation, to MacKenzie Mallon, August 31, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.
Possibly Exposition de Tableaux et Dessins: Quelques Maîtres du 18e et du 19e siècle au profit de la Société des Amis du Louvre et de l’Œuvre de l’Enfance malheureuse, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1938), unpaginated, as Vase de fleurs.
Les Chefs-d’Œuvre des Collections Françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération Artistique et les Services Alliés, exh. cat. (Paris: Ministère de l’éducation nationale, 1946), 20, as Les Boules de neige.
Jean Dauberville and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard: Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint, 1888–1905 (Paris: Éditions J. et H. Bernheim-Jeune, 1965), no. 31, p. 1:107, (repro.), as Fleurs: Boules de neige.
Collection D. David-Weill: Dessins et Tableaux, Histoire de Paris et de ses environs . . . Sujets Divers, Dessins-Aquarelles-Gouaches-Peintures des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles; Tableaux Modernes (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, June 9–10, 1971), unpaginated, (repro.), as Fleurs dans un vase, Boules de neige.
Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Les Années de la Belle Époque: 1890–1914 (Paris: ACR, 1991), 254, (repro.), as Boules de neige.
Michel Dauberville and Guy-Patrice Dauberville, Bonnard: Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peint, Révisé et Augmente, 1888–1905, 2nd rev. ed. (Paris: Éditions Bernheim-Jeune, 1992), p. 1:107, (repro.), as Fleurs: Boules de neige.
Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 96, (repro.), as Still Life with Guelder Roses.
“Discriminating Thieves: Nazi-Looted Art and Restitution at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” artguidemag.com (ca. January 2019): https://www.artguidemag.com/art-news/discriminating-thieves-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art.
“‘Discriminating Thieves: Nazi-Looted Art and Restitution’ opens at Nelson-Atkins,” ArtDaily.org (January 27, 2019): http://artdaily.com/news/110834/-Discriminating-Thieves--Nazi-Looted-Art-and-Restitution--opens-at-Nelson-Atkins#.XFB_Ns17laR.
Luke X. Martin, “Meet The Kansas City Gumshoe Who Uncovers The Stories Of The Nelson-Atkins’ Nazi-Looted Art,” KCUR (March 17, 2020): https://www.kcur.org/show/up-to-date/2019-03-17/meet-the-kansas-city-gumshoe-who-uncovers-the-stories-of-the-nelson-atkins-nazi-looted-art.
Darsie Alexander et al., Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art, exh. cat. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022), 200–01, as Still Life with Guelder Roses.
Jordan Hoffman, “Afterlives: The incredible stories behind recovered Nazi-looted art,” Guardian (August 23, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/aug/23/nazi-looted-art-stories-jewish-museum-new-york-city-exhibition.
Frances Brent, “Visual Moment: The Compelling Odysseys of Looted Art,” Moment Magazine (September/October 2021): https://momentmag.com/odysseys-of-looted-art-pierre-bonnard/.
Chloe Sarbib, “What happened to all the art that Nazis looted,” Sun Sentinel (September 8, 2021): https://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/fl-jj-what-happened-to-nazi-looted-art-20210908-lrx35de6yjgujea66vzjtl7u4e-story.html.
Eli Anapur, “The Jewish Museum Tells the Lost Stories of Nazi Looted Art,” Widewalls (September 25, 2021): https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/jewish-museum-nazi-looted-art.
Jason Farago, “In ‘Afterlives,’ about looted art, why are the victims an afterthought,” New York Times (September 30, 2021): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/arts/design/afterlives-looted-art-jewish-museum.html.
Jason Farago, “The Stories Promised Are Not Told,” New York Times 171, no. 59,198 (October 1, 2021): C12.
Jason Farago, “In ‘Afterlives,’ about looted art, why are the victims an afterthought,” artdaily.org (October 2, 2021): https://artdaily.cc/news/139860/In--Afterlives---about-looted-art--why-are-the-victims-an-afterthought-#.YVsbVLhKhdh.
Allison Perelman, “Pierre Bonnard, Still Life with Guelder Roses, 1892; reworked 1929,” catalogue entry and Mary Schafer and John Twilley, “Pierre Bonnard, Still Life with Guelder Roses, 1892; reworked 1929,” 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, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.704.
