Waterworks of the Marly Machine at Bougival
Framed: 27 5/8 x 22 1/2 x 3 inches (70.17 x 57.15 x 7.62 cm)
- 127
Possibly Exposition de tableaux par C. Pissarro, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, March 22–April 15, 1899, no. 16, as Barrage à Pontoise.
Contrasts in Landscape: 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings, Wildenstein, New York, closed October 31, 1959, no. 11, as The Banks of the Seine at Bougival.
Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, Wildenstein, New York, October 29–December 6, 1975, no. 48, as The Weir on the Seine at Bougival.
Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, September 21, 1996–February 23, 1997, no. 5, as The Lock on the Seine at Bougival.
Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9–September 9, 2007, no. 6, as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly (Au bord de la Seine à Port Marly).
Camille Pissarro produced this painting shortly after his return from London, where he had taken his family to wait out the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) in safety. While in London, Pissarro studied the landscape paintings of the great English artists J. M. W. Turner and John Constable. Pissarro shared Constable’s fascination with the mechanics of weirs (small dams) and locks, as well as with the material qualities of paint. Here, Pissarro depicted the portion of the Seine River that provided water for the fountains at the palace of Versailles.
Georges Feydeau (1862–1921), Paris, by April 4, 1903;
Purchased at his sale, Catalogue des Tableaux Modernes, Aquarelles, Pastels, Dessins appartenant à M. Georges Feydeau, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 4, 1903, lot 39, as Barrage de la Seine à Pontoise, by M. Gobe[t]ski, April 4, 1903 [1];
With Raphaël Gérard, Paris [2];
With Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris, by October 18, 1933;
Purchased from Bignou by Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, as Port de Marly, October 18, 1933–July 1934 [3];
Purchased from Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer by Robert “Rudi” Maas (1878–1940), Amsterdam, July 1934–1940 [4];
Inherited by his wife, Elisabeth “Lili” Maas (née Jonas, 1885–1954), Amsterdam, 1940–at least 1942 [5];
Prof. Dr. Boss, Zürich, by September 30, 1966 [6];
Purchased from Prof. Dr. Boss by Marlborough Fine Art Galerie, Zürich, September 30, 1966–July 19, 1967 [7];
Purchased from Marlborough by Thomas D. Neelands Jr. (1902–1972), New York, July 19, 1967–1972;
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Important 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, April 26, 1972, lot 6, as Barrage sur la Seine à Bougival, by Wildenstein and Co., New York, 1972–May 20, 1987 [8];
Purchased from Wildenstein by Marion (née Helzberg, 1931–2013) and Henry (1922–2019) Bloch, Shawnee Mission, KS, May 20, 1987–June 15, 2015;
Given by Henry and Marion Bloch to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
NOTES:
[1] In both the annotated catalogues for his 1903 sale, it is uncertain how the buyer’s name is spelled: M. Gobetski or M. Gobeski; see copies in NAMA curatorial files. The buyer may have been a member of the artistic Godebski family, whose name was often misspelled in contemporary journals. Sculptor “Cyprian” Quentin Godebski (1835–1909) or his son and composer, François Joseph Joachim “Cyprien” Godebski (1866–1948) are likely candidates. The younger Godebski was in the same social circles as Feydeau. Other candidates are Cyprien’s daughter and pianist, Maria Sofia Olga Zenaida Godebski (1872–1950; later known as Misia Sert), who was also a friend and model to Pierre-Auguste Renoir; or Cyrprian’s eldest son, Cyrien Xavier Leonard Godebski (1875–1937), who was a literary man and friends with the post-impressionists.
[2] For constituent, see Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings (Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 2005), no. 203, p. 2:173.
[3] See email from Walter Feilchenfeldt Jr. to Danielle Hampton Cullen, April 21, 2021, NAMA curatorial files. Walter Feilchenfeldt Sr. was head of Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer, Berlin, from 1926 until 1933, when the Hitler’s rise to power forced him to resign from the Berlin firm. The head of the firm became Grete Ring. Feilchenfeldt worked primarily at the Amsterdam branch until 1939, and in 1948, he established his own gallery in Zurich. See http://www.walterfeilchenfeldt.ch/gallery/.
[4] Rudi and Lili Maas were clients of Walter Feilchenfeldt, who looked after their collection, which, beginning before the World War II, was in storage with Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam. Rudi and Lili Maas emigrated to California in 1938, but the painting remained in Amsterdam. Feilchenfeldt made notes about the collections he looked after during the war. The Pissarro “Port de Marly” is recorded in the “Maas Collection” twice: in 1937 and 1942. See email from Walter Feilchenfeldt Jr. to Danielle Hampton Cullen, April 20, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.
[5] Robert Maas died in 1940. It is not clear when the painting left Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, and if or when it was shipped to his widow; see email from Walter Feilchenfeldt Jr. to Danielle Hampton Cullen, April 20, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.
[6] This might be Prof. Dr. Medard Boss (1903–1990), Zurich, a renowned Swiss psychoanalytic psychiatrist who was a medical faculty member at the University of Zurich. Boss was also an art collector. In 1959, he was a visiting professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, at the University of Washington, Medical School, Washington DC, and at the University of Madison, WI. That same year, the painting was lent to Wildenstein in New York.
[7] See email from Franz K. Plutschow, director, Marlborough International Fine Art, to Mackenzie Mallon, April 21, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.
[8] See email from Joseph Baillio, Wildenstein and Co., to Mackenzie Mallon, May 4, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.
Possibly Exposition de tableaux par C. Pissarro, exh. cat. (Paris: Bernheim-Jeune, 1899), unpaginated, as Barrage à Pontoise.
Catalogue des Tableaux Modernes, Aquarelles, Pastels, Dessins appartenant à M. Georges Feydeau (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1903), 26, (repro.), as Barrage de la Seine à Pontoise.
Le Bonhomme, “La vie de Paris,” Le Figaro 49, no. 93 (April 3, 1903): 1.
T. -S., “La Collection Feydeau,” Le Temps 43, no. 15,267 (April 3, 1903): [2], as Barrage de la Seine à Pontoise.
“Pour les Collectionneurs et les amateurs,” Journal des artistes 28, no. 15 (April 19, 1903): 4093, as Barrage de la Seine à Pontoise.
G.R., “A Chronicle of the Hôtel Drouot,” Burlington Gazette 1, no. 2 (May 1903): 58.
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art—Son Œuvre (Paris: Paul Rosenberg, 1939), no. 125, pp. 1:97, 2: unpaginated, (repro.), as Barrage sur la Seine a [sic] Bougival.
Contrasts in Landscape: 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings, exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein, 1959), unpaginated, as Barrage of the Seine at Bougival.
Important 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture (New York: Sotheby, Parke-Bernet, 1972), 22–23, (repro.), as Barrage sur la Seine a [sic] Bougival.
Jacques Lorcey, “Feydeau Peinture et Collectionneur,” Bulletin de la société d’étude et de promotion des arts du spectacle 8 (1973): 39, as Barrage de la Seine à Pontoise.
Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein, 1975), unpaginated, as The Weir on the Seine at Bougival.
Ralph E. Shikes and Paula Harper, Pissarro, His Life and Work (New York: Horizon Press, 1980), 97, (repro.), as Dam on the Seine at Louveciennes.
John Rewald et al., Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903, exh. cat. (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1980), 86.
Ludovico Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art—Son Œuvre, 2nd rev. ed. (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1989), no. 125, pp. 1:97, 2: unpaginated, (repro.), as Barrage sur la Seine a [sic] Bougival.
Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, Pissarro and Pontoise: The Painter in a Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 41, 206n14.
Henry Gidel, Georges Feydeau (Paris: Flammarion, 1991), 187.
Eliza Rathbone et al., Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1996), 258, (repro.), as The Lock on the Seine at Bougival.
Jacques Lorcey, L'homme de chez Maxim’s: Georges Feydeau, sa vie, vol. 1 (Paris: Séguier, 2004), 180.
Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings (Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 2005), no. 203, pp. 2:173, 3: 393, 402, 419, (repro.), as Barrage sur la Seine à Bougival.
Rebecca Dimling Cochran and Bobbie Leigh, “100 Top Collectors who have made a difference,” Art and Antiques (March 2006): 90.
Bobbie Leigh, “Magnificent Obsession,” Art and Antiques 29, no. 6 (June 2006): 60, 65, (repro.), as Lock on the Seine at Bougival.
Alice Thorson, “A final countdown—A rare showing of Impressionist paintings from the private collection of Henry and Marion Bloch is one of the inaugural exhibitions at the 165,000-square-foot glass-and-steel structure,” Kansas City Star (June 29, 2006): B1.
“Inaugural Exhibitions Celebrate Kansas City,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2006): 3.
Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro. Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 10–11, 13, 48–51, 70, 156, (repro.), as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly (Au bord de la Seine à Port Marly) .
Alice Thorson, “A Tiny Renoir Began an Impressive Obsession,” Kansas City Star (June 3, 2007): E4, (repro.), as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly.
“Lasting Impressions: A Tribute to Marion and Henry Bloch,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2007): 11–12.
Steve Paul, “Pretty Pictures: Marion and Henry Bloch’s Collection of Superb Impressionist Masters,” Panache 4, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 20.
Alice Thorson, “Museum to Get 29 Impressionist Works from the Bloch Collection,” Kansas City Star (February 5, 2010): A1, as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly.
Thomas M. Bloch, Many Happy Returns: The Story of Henry Bloch, America’s Tax Man (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2011), 175.
Diane Stafford, “Bloch Gift to Go for Nelson Upgrade,” Kansas City Star 135, no. 203 (April 8, 2015): A8.
“Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Officially Accessions Bloch Impressionist Masterpieces,” Artdaily.org (July 25, 2015): http://artdaily.com/news/80246/Nelson-Atkins-Museum-of-Art-officially-accessions-Bloch-Impressionist-masterpieces#.V6oGwlKFO9I .
Julie Paulais, “Le Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art reçoit des tableaux impressionnistes en échange de leurs répliques,” Le Journal des arts (July 30, 2015): http://www.lejournaldesarts.fr/site/archives/docs_article/129801/le-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art-recoit-des-tableaux-impressionnistes-en-echange-de-leurs-repliques.php .
Josh Niland, “The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Acquires a Renowned Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Art,” architecturaldigest.com (August 6, 2015): https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/nelson-atkins-museum-accessions-bloch-art-collection .
Nina Siegal, “Upon Closer Review, Credit Goes to Bosch,” New York Times 165, no. 57130 (February 2, 2016): C5.
“Nelson-Atkins to unveil renovated Bloch Galleries of European Art in winter 2017,” Artdaily.org (July 20, 2016): http://artdaily.com/news/88852/Nelson-Atkins-to-unveil-renovated-Bloch-Galleries-of-European-Art-in-winter-2017-#.W-NDepNKhaQ .
“Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art celebrates generosity of Henry Bloch with new acquisition,” Artdaily.org (October 18, 2016): http://artdaily.com/news/90923/Nelson-Atkins-Museum-of-Art-celebrates-generosity-of-Henry-Bloch-with-new-acquisition#.W-NDv5NKhaQ .
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), 72, (repro.), as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly.
Kelly Crow, “Museum Rewards Donor with Fake Art to Hang at Home,” Wall Street Journal (January 25, 2017): https://www.wsj.com/articles/museum-rewards-donor-with-fake-art-to-hang-at-home-1485370768 .
Albert Hect, “Henry Bloch’s Masterpieces Collection to Go on Display at Nelson-Atkins Museum,” Jewish Business News (February 26, 2017), http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2017/02/26/henry-bloch-masterpieces-collection/ .
David Frese, “Inside the Bloch Galleries: An interactive experience,” Kansas City Star 137, no. 169 (March 5, 2017): 1D, 4D, (repro.), as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly.
“Editorial: Thank you, Henry and Marion Bloch,” Kansas City Star (March 7, 2017): http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article137040948.html . [repr. “Thank you, Henry and Marion Bloch,” Kansas City Star 137, no. 172 (March 8, 2017): 16A].
Hampton Stevens, “(Not Actually) 12 Things To Do During The Big 12 Tournament,” Flatland: KCPT’s Digital Magazine (March 9, 2017): http://www.flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/sports/not-actually-12-big-12-tournament/ .
Laura Spencer, “The Nelson-Atkins’ Bloch Galleries feature Old Masterworks and New Technology,” KCUR (March 10, 2017): http://kcur.org/post/nelson-atkins-bloch-galleries-feature-old-masterworks-and-new-technology#stream/0 .
Victoria Stapley-Brown, “Nelson-Atkins Museum’s new European art galleries come with a ‘love story’,” Art Newspaper (March 10, 2017): http://theartnewspaper.com/news/museums/nelson-atkins-museum-s-new-european-art-galleries-come-with-a-love-story/ .
Harry Bellet, “Don du ciel pour le Musée Nelson-Atkins,” Le Monde (March 13, 2017): http://www.lemonde.fr/arts/article/2017/03/13/don-du-ciel-pour-le-musee-nelson-atkins_5093543_1655012.html .
Menachem Wecker, “Jewish Philanthropist Establishes Kansas City as Cultural Mecca,” Forward (March 14, 2017): http://forward.com/culture/365264/jewish-philanthropist-establishes-kansas-city-as-cultural-mecca/ [repr. in Menachem Wecker, “Kansas City Collection Is A Chip Off the Old Bloch,” Forward (March 17, 2017): 20-22], as Banks of the Seine at Port Marly.
Juliet Helmke, “The Bloch Collection Takes up Residence in Kansas City’s Nelson Atkins Museum,” BoulinArtInfo International, (March 15, 2017): http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/2005267/the-bloch-collection-takes-up-residence-in-kansas-citys.
Erich Hatala Matthes, “Digital replicas are not soulless—they help us engage with art,” Apollo (March 23, 2017): https://www.apollo-magazine.com/digital-replicas-3d-printing-original-artworks/ .
Louise Nicholson, “How Kansas City got its magnificent museum,” Apollo (April 7, 2017): https://www.apollo-magazine.com/how-kansas-city-got-its-magnificent-museum/ .
Lilly Wei, “Julián Zugazagoitia: ‘Museums should generate interest and open a door that leads to further learning’,” Studio International (August 21, 2017): http://studiointernational.com/index.php/julian-zugazagoitia-director-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art-kansas-city-interview .
Robert D. Hershey Jr., “Henry Bloch, H&R Block’s cofounder, dies at 96,” Boston Globe (April 23, 2019): https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2019/04/23/henry-bloch-block-cofounder/?arc404=true .
Robert D. Hershey Jr., “Henry W. Bloch, Tax-Preparation Pioneer (and Pitchman), Is Dead at 96,” New York Times (April 23, 2019): https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/obituaries/henry-w-bloch-dead.html .
Claire Selvin, “Henry Wollman Bloch, Collector and Prominent Benefactor of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Is Dead at 96,” ArtNews (April 23, 2019): http://www.artnews.com/2019/04/23/henry-bloch-dead-96/ .
“Henry Wollman Bloch (1922-2019),” Art Forum (April 24, 2019): https://www.artforum.com/news/henry-wollman-bloch-1922-2019-79547 .
Frank Morris, “Henry Bloch, Co-Founder Of H&R Block, Dies At 96,” npr.org (April 24, 2019): https://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716641448/henry-bloch-co-founder-of-h-r-block-dies-at-96 .
Ignacio Villarreal, “Nelson-Atkins mourns loss of Henry Bloch,” ArtDaily.org (April 24, 2019): http://artdaily.com/news/113035/Nelson-Atkins-mourns-loss-of-Henry-Bloch#.XMB76qR7laQ
Eric Adler and Joyce Smith, “KC businessman and philanthropist Henry Bloch dies,” Lee’s Summit Journal 132, no. 79 (April 26, 2019): 3A, (repro.).
Eric Adler, “Sold for $3.25 million, Bloch’s home in Mission Hills may be torn down,” Kansas City Star 141, no. 90 ( December 16, 2020): 2A.
