Portrait of Isidore Florimond Marié, Seigneur de Toulle et de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, a Knight of the Royal French Military Order of Saint-Louis

Probably commissioned by the sitter, Isidore Florimond Marié de Toulle (1705–1792), seigneur de Toulle and seigneur de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, chevalier de Saint-Louis, Amiens and Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle, France, by 1741–January 19, 1792 [1];

Probably by decent to his son, Louis Jean-Baptiste Marie Marié de Toulle (1759–1808), Amiens and Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle, France, by 1792–October 4, 1808;

Probably inherited by his wife, Marie Marguerite Françoise de Toulle (née François, 1769–1840), Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle, France, 1808–January 14, 1840;

Probably by descent to her daughter Marie-Agathe Marié (née de Toulle, 1794–1875), Comtesse Dary de Senarpont, Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle, France, by 1840–February 25, 1875 [2];

Presumably to her brother-in-law, Adolphe Léon Dary (1806–1890), Comte Dary and Marquis de Senarpont, Château de Senarpont, Château de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, Amiens, France, and Paris, by 1875–July 9, 1890 [3];

Inherited by his widow, Marie Léonie Dary (née de Chevigné, 1836–1912), Comtesse Dary and Marquise de Senarpont, Château de Senarpont, Château de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, France, and Paris, 1890–January 10, 1912 [4];

Purchased from her posthumous sale, Vente après Décès D’un très Bon Mobilier Ancien et Moderne, Dépendant de la Succession de Madame la Marquise de Senarpont et garnissant Le Château de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, Commune de Foucaucourt-hors, Nesle, Somme, Château de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle, France, May 21, 1912, unnumbered, as Un Portrait d’Homme, and dated 1747, to Hecquet, Amiens, 1912 [5];

Louis Gabriel Albert (1885–1972) and Antoinette Céleste (née Lasson, 1890–1962) Watel-Dehaynin, Paris, by March 19, 1962–July 23, 1972 [6];

Purchased at his posthumous sale, Tableaux anciens, dessins, pastels et tableaux par ou attribués à L.-L. Boilly, G.-M. Crespi, J.-H. Fragonard, J.-B. Greuze, J.-B. Huet, Sir Th. Lawrence, M.-N. Lépicié, J.-M. Nattier, J.-B. Perroneau, Rembrandt, H. Robert, J.-F. Van Son, C. Vernet, J.-M. Vien, M.-L. Vigée Lebrun, des Écoles florentine, française et italienne des XVI^e et XVIII^e siècles et de l’Atelier de Van Balen et Van Kessel, Palais Galliera, Paris, March 15, 1973, no. S, as Portrait d’un chevalier de Saint-Louis, through Henri Baderou, by Jacques Seligmann and Co., Inc., New York, stock no. 8990, March 15, 1973–January 19, 1977 [7];

Purchased from Seligmann by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977.

NOTES:

[1] Isidore Florimond Marié de Toulle was a Knight of the Order of Saint-Louis and Captain of the Regiment of the Grammont Cavalry. See “Acte de Mariage, Isidore Florimond Marié de Toulle et Marie Thérèse Gresset, 5 Avril 1752,” Amiens (Saint-Jacques): baptêmes, mariages, sépultures, 1751–1754, Archives de la Somme, Cote 5MI_D132, pp. 68–69, digitized https://archives.somme.fr/ark:/58483/njz862bxsp1k/0c411646-d951-498c-850e-b71760100421. See also correspondence with Christian du Passage, descendant of the Dary de Senarpont family, and Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, December 20–21, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.

[2] Marie-Agathe Marié de Toulle had an elder sister, Louise Eugénie Marie de Saisseval (née Marié de Toulle, 1790–1844), but she got married around 1811 and probably moved out of the family chateau. Marie-Agathe did not marry until 1847 when she was 52, which was after her mother’s death. She was living in her family home, the chateau de Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle, France, where the painting was probably still hanging since its creation. See her death notice on February 25, 1875, “BMD Records (Births, Marriages, Deaths), 1857–1880,” Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle (Somme, France), no. 5MI D698, p. 167, digitized on ancestrylibrary.com.

[3] Marie-Agathe and Alexandre-Alfred had no children; therefore, Alexandre-Alfred’s title went to his younger brother Adolphe-Léon. Ten weeks after Marie-Agathe passed away, her great-niece Marie Léonie marries Adolphe-Léon, ensuring that the title of Dary de Senarpont and the chateaux at Senarpont and Foucaucourt-Hors-Nesle remain in the family. In 1890, Adolphe Léon died in the Château de Foucaucourt-hors-Nesle.

[4] Marie Léonie married her great-aunt’s brother-in-law, making Marie-Agathe and Marie Léonie sisters-in-law as well as great-aunt/great-niece.

[5] See copy of fragments of calling cards once attached to the stretcher verso of the painting, which say: “[?]^me la C^[…?] de Sen… / 3[?] rue C[…?]” and “[^me?] la C[…] de Senap / 3 rue[ ?] Cam[bacérès?]” Copy of fragments are in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Jacques Seligmann and Co. Records, Series 2.2: Museum files, KC NAMA, box 220, folder 11, Nattier, pp. 154–55, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jacques-seligmann--co-records-9936/subseries-2-2/box-220-folder-11. See also letter from Germain Seligman to Henri Baderou, Paris, April 11, 1973, NAMA curatorial files. These calling cards are the best evidence that this painting is the same as the “Portrait d’Homme par Nattier” in the 1912 sale.

Raymond de Boissard, Marquis de Senarpont, and great-great-step-grandson to Marie Léonie Dary, said that the Nattier painting sold from de Chevigné’s collection in 1912 to a M. Hecquet from Amiens for 27,000 francs. See letter from de Boissard to Seligman, October 23, 1973, copy in NAMA curatorial files.

The De Senarpont family also had property in Amiens, but nothing more is known about Hecquet and if he was related or if he might have been an agent for the family.

[6] Ader, the auctioneer in charge of the 1973 sale, told Baderou that the Nattier painting came from the “Vatel de Hennin” collection. See letters between Henri Baderou and Germain Seligman, April 2, 1973, and April 11, 1973, NAMA curatorial files. Antoinette Watel-Dehaynin is noted as a collector of eighteenth-century French paintings as early as 1914, and again in 1917. It is possible she purchased the Nattier from Hecquet shortly after the 1912 sale. At the very latest, the couple probably owned the painting before her death in 1962.

[7] The museum was considering the purchase of the painting as early as April 1976; see letter from Ted Coe, Curator of European Art, NAMA, Kansas City, MO, to Germain Seligman, April 12, 1976, NAMA curatorial files.