Gold Room Panel
Possibly Order of the Knights of Malta in France, Palais du Grand Prieur, Paris, by 1766-at the latest 1853 [1];
Princess Marie Wassilievna Woronzow (1819-1895), Palazzo Woronzow, Florence, Italy, by 1895 [2];
By descent to her son, Nicolas Stolypine, Duc de Montelfi (d. 1899), Florence, Italy, 1895-1899;
By inheritance to the Stolypine family, 1899-1900;
Purchased at their sale, Objects d'art et d'ameublement tableaux anciens et modernes [...] la vente aux enchères publiques aura lieu par suite du décès et pour compte des béritiers de son altesse la princesse de son altesse la Princesse Marie Wassilievna Woronzow et de son fils Gentilhomme de S. M. l'Empereur de Russie M. Nicolas Stolypine duc de Montelfi a Florence , Giulio Sambon, Florence, May 7, 1900, lot 1221, by the dealer Giuseppi Salvadori, Florence, 1900-1908;
Purchased from Salvadori by an unknown collector, Munich, Germany, 1908-1928;
Purchased from the unknown Munich collector by Adolph Loewi, Venice, Italy and Los Angeles, CA, stock no. I1006, 1928-1942;
Purchased from Loewi by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1942.
NOTES:
[1] The registration of the position of the Grand Prieur of the Knights of the Order of Malta in France occurred with the permission of Pope Clement XI on 26 September 1719. He commissioned the artist Jean-Marc Nattier to decorate the Palais du Temple, the Parisian residence of the Grand Prieur. It is currently unclear when the wall panels were installed. They are illustrated in a 1766 painting by Michel-Barthelemy Ollivier of the dining room of the Palais du Grand Prieur, and described in Henri de Curzon, La Maison du Temple de Paris (Paris: Hachette et cie, 1888). The room illustrated in Ollivier’s painting was probably in the south wing of the palace. The Palais du Temple was destroyed in 1853, at which point the panels were removed and sold, according to Georges Pillement, Paris Disparu (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1966).
[2] Provenance from this point is according to the dealer Adolph Loewi, in a letter to Ross Taggart, Registrar, March 11, 1949, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
