View of Lake Garda
Framed: 36 5/8 × 46 × 3 3/4 inches (93.04 × 116.84 × 9.53 cm)
- 126
Exposition
Universelle, Palais du Trocadéro, Paris, May 1-November 10, 1878,
no. 203, as Le lac de Garde.
Cent
Chefs-d’Oeuvre des Collections Parisiennes, Galerie
Georges Petit, Paris, opened June 12, 1883, no. 7, as Le Lac de Garde.
Exposition d'une collection particulière au Bénéfice du Bureau de
Bienfaisance du 10e Arrondissement, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,
November 19-December 1885, no. 15, as Le
Lac de Garde.
Exposition
centennale de l’art français (1789-1889), Palais
du Champ de Mars, Paris, May 6-October 31, 1889, no. 181, as Le Lac de Garde.
Exposition
organisée au profit du monument du centenaire de Corot: Catalogue des
chefs-d’œuvre prêtés par les musées de l’État et les grandes collections de
France et de l’étranger, Palais Galliera, Paris, May-June
1895, no. 97, as Le Lac de Garde.
A
Century of French Painting: Exhibition Organised under the Auspices of his
Excellency the Ambassador of France in Washington for the benefit of the French
Hospital of New York, Knoedler, New York, November 12-December 8, 1928,
no. 4, as Le Lac de Garde.
Loan
Exhibition of Figure and Landscape Paintings by J.B.C. Corot,
Knoedler, New York, November 12-December 1, 1934, no. 23, as Le Lac de Garde.
Trustees Exhibition: New
Acquisitions, The
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 11-26, 1981, no cat.
A Bountiful Decade: Selected
Acquisitions, 1977-1987, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
City, MO, October 14-December 6, 1987, no. 49, as View of Lake Garda.
Collecting in the Gilded Age:
Art Patronage in Pittsburgh, 1890-1910, Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, April 6-June
24, 1997, no. 41, as Le Lac de Garde
(View of Lake Garda).
Winslow Homer and the Critics:
Forging a National Art in the 1870s, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February
18-May 6, 2001; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 10-September 9, 2001;
High Museum of Art, October 6, 2001-January 6, 2002, (Kansas City only), hors
cat.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was one of the leading French landscape painters of the 1800s. During repeated trips to Italy between the 1820s and 1840s, he dedicated himself to painting and sketching from nature. Later in life, when he preferred to work in his Parisian studio, Corot relied on these sketches for inspiration or painted landscapes from memory. In this painting, a boatman and a contadina (Italian peasant woman) lounge on the banks of Lake Garda, a site that Corot had visited three decades earlier.
Jules-Frédéric Perreau (1821-1881), Paris;
Hector Defoër-Bey (1832-1905), Paris;
Chevalier Alfred de Knyff (1819-1885), Brussels and Paris, by May 1, 1878;
Albert Wolff (1835-1891), Paris, by June 1883;
Purchased from Albert Wolff by Georges Lutz (1835-1901), Paris, by November 19, 1885-1901 [2];
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Collection Georges Lutz, importants tableaux modernes, aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Boilly, Bonvin, Boudin, Corot, Courbet, Daubigny, Daumier, Decamps, Delacroix, Diaz, Jules Dupré, Fantin Latour, Français, Fromentin, Géricault, Gervex, Harpignies, Henner, Isabey, Charles Jacque, Jongkind, Jules Lefebvre, Lépine, Meissonier, J.F. Millet, Ribot, Ricard, Th. Rousseau, Servin, Tassaert, Troyon, Vollon, Ziem, etc.: oeuvre capitale de Corot: Le Lac de Garde; remarquable collection de bronzes par Barye, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 26, 1902, lot 31, as Le Lac de Garde, by Georges Bottolier-Lasquin for Arnold and Tripp, Paris, May 26, 1902-July 7, 1902;
Purchased from Arnold and Tripp, Paris, by Knoedler and Co., New York, Stock Book 5, No. 9871, July 7, 1902-September 8, 1902 [3];
Purchased from Knoedler and Co., New York, by Andrew W. Mellon (1855-1937), New York, September 8, 1902-1937;
To his son, Paul Mellon (1907-1999), Upperville, VA, ca. August 26, 1937-after September 10, 1941 [4];
Given by Paul Mellon to his wife’s parents, Dr. Charles Clinton (1871-1962) and Perla Mae (née Petty, 1879-1970) Conover, Kansas City, MO, after September 10, 1941-ca. May 18, 1971 [5];
To their daughter, Catherine Bunting (née Conover, 1913-1980), Kansas City, MO, by May 18, 1971-1980 [6];
To her husband, Clarke S. P. Bunting (1912-2001), Kansas City, MO, by November 1980-December 19, 1980;
Given by Clarke S. P. Bunting in memory of his wife, Catherine Conover Bunting, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1980.
NOTES:
[1] M. Basset appears to be an art dealer, though more specifics were not found. See Inventaire general des richesses d’art de la France: Province, vol. 1 (Paris: E. Plon et Cie, 1878), 20.
[2] See Georges Loiseau, “M. Georges Lutz,” Le Magasin pittoresque 2 (January 1, 1901). Georges Lutz saw Albert Wolff’s collection at the 1883 Georges Petit exhibition. In 1885, he went to Wolff’s home and purchased several of Wolff’s paintings.
[3] Knoedler purchased the picture in half-share from Arnold and Tripp on July 7, 1902. See Knoedler and Company, New York, Stock Book 5, No. 9871, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. On the same day, Knoedler purchased Corot’s painting Le Matin (Knoedler No. 9872) in half-share. When Knoedler sold Le lac de garde to Andrew Mellon on September 8, 1902, they sold their half-share of Le Matin back to Arnold and Tripp for double the original price at the same time. There is no notation stating that Knoedler sold their half-share in Le lac de garde back to Arnold and Tripp, but the exchange of Le Matin seems to have been part of those negotiations.
[4] See letter dated May 9, 1937 from Paul Mellon to Andrew Mellon cited in David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 574, in which Paul tells his father “I don’t want to buy them [two Corot’s].” From this, we can surmise that Paul did not have the paintings until sometime around his father’s death in August 1937. An entry in the 1937 inventory of Andrew Mellon’s estate reads: “J.B.C. Corot, Le lac de garde/or, Landscape with castle in background”, noted as “purchased Sept. 8, 1902, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc.” and also noted as “being distributed to Paul Mellon” from Andrew Mellon’s estate. See correspondence from Beverly Carter, Estate of Paul Mellon, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, August 22, 2019, NAMA curatorial files.
[5] See correspondence from Beverly Carter, Estate of Paul Mellon, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, August 22, 2019, NAMA curatorial files. Mellon’s secretary noted that Mellon had sent the Corot to his wife’s family in Kansas City on loan on September 10, 1941. There is no note of it ever returning to Paul Mellon. Ms. Carter, the executor of Paul Mellon’s estate, believes he would not have asked the Conovers to return it after their daughter’s, Mary Mellon, passing in 1946.
[6] Relining fragments with a label on the back dated May 18, 1971 show when conservator James Roth relined this painting when the Bunting’s owned it.
Exposition universelle internationale de 1878 à Paris, Catalogue officiel, vol. 1, Groupe I, Œuvres d’art. Classes 1 à 5, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1878), 20, as Le lac de Garde [repr. in Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes, vol. 3, Impressionist Group Exhibitions (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated].
Paul Mantz, Exposition universelle de 1878: Les beaux-arts et les arts décoratifs, vol. 1, L’art moderne, exh. cat. (Paris: Gazette des beaux-arts, 1879), 24, as Lac de Garde.
Paul Mantz, “Exposition universelle: La peinture française,” Gazette des beaux-arts 18 (October-December 1878), 421, as Lac de Garde.
William Reymond, “Causerie: Les beaux-arts à l’exposition, X, France (peinture),” Le Panthéon de l'industrie: journal hebdomadaire illustré, no. 189 (November 17, 1878): 394, as Lac de Garde.
Jean Clément Dubosc de Pesquidoux, L'art dans les deux mondes: peinture et sculpture (1878), vol. 1, France—Belgique—Hollande—Espagne—Italie—Grèce (Paris: E. Plon, 1881), 181, as Lac de Garde.
Émile Bellier de La Chavignerie, Supplément: Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française, depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'en 1882 inclusivement: peintres, sculpteurs, architectes, graveurs et lithographes (Paris: Vve H. Loones, 1880), 159, as Le lac de Garde.
Jules Hoche, “Les Parisiens chez eux,” Le Voleur illustré: cabinet de lecture universel, no. 1358 (July 13, 1883): 443.
Jules Hoche, Les Parisiens chez eux (Paris: E. Dentu, 1883), 420.
Gustave Toudouze, Albert Wolff: histoire d'un chroniqueur parisien (Paris: Victor Havard, 1883), 261, 353.
Albert Wolff, Cent Chefs-d’Œuvre: The choice of the French private galleries, exh. cat. (New York: Knoedler, 1883), 11, 60, (repro.), as Garda Lake.
Albert Wolff, Memoires d’un parisien: Voyages a [sic] travers le monde (Paris: Victor-Havard, 1884), 261, 353.
Paul Eudel, L’Hôtel Drouot et la curiosité en 1884-1885, vol. 4 (Paris: Georges Charpentier et Cie, 1885), 246, as le Lac de Garde.
Exposition d'une collection particulière au Bénéfice du Bureau de Bienfaisance du 10e Arrondissement, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1885).
Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889 A [sic] Paris, Catalogue Général Officiel: Beaux-Arts Exposition Centennale de L’art Français (1789-1889), exh. cat. (Lille: L. Danel, 1889), 6, as Le Lac de Garde.
Armand-Pierre-Marie Dayot, Un siècle d'art: notes sur la peinture française à l'Exposition centennale des beaux-arts (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1890), 100, as Le Lac de Garde.
John W. Mollett, The Painters of Barbizon: Corot, Daubigny, Dupré (1890; repr., Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2009), unpaginated, (repro.), as The Lake of Garda.
Léon Roger-Milès, Les artistes célèbres: Corot (Paris: Librairie de l’art, 1891), 84-85, as Le Lac de Garde.
Almanach Hachette: Petite encyclopédie populaire de la vie pratique (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1894), 256, as Le Lac de Garde.
Exposition organisée au profit du monument de centenaire de Corot: Catalogue des chefs-d’œuvre prêtés par les musées de l’État et les grandes collections de France et de l’Étranger, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie Georges Petit, 1895), 35, as Le Lac de Garde.
Adolphe Braun, Catalogue général des Reproductions inaltérables au charbon: D'après les chefs-d'oeuvre de la peinture dans les musées d'Europe, les Galeries et collections particulières les plus remarquables (Paris: Maison Adolphe Braun et Cie, 1896), 154, as Le Lac de Garde.
Georges Lafenestre, La tradition dans la peinture française (Paris: L.-Henry May, 1898), 360, as Le Lac de Garde.
Georges Loiseau, “M. Georges Lutz,” Le Magasin pittoresque 2 (January 1, 1901): 305, as Lac de Garde.
Marcel Nicolle, “La Collection Georges Lutz,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 11, no. 58 (January 10, 1902): 336, as Lac de Garde.
Henry Lapauze and Léon Roger-Milès, Catalogue de la collection Georges Lutz, importants tableaux modernes, aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Boilly, Bonvin, Boudin, Corot, Courbet, Daubigny, Daumier, Decamps, Delacroix, Diaz, Jules Dupré, Fantin Latour, Français, Fromentin, Géricault, Gervex, Harpignies, Henner, Isabey, Charles Jacque, Jongkind, Jules Lefebvre, Lépine, Meissonier, J.F. Millet, Ribot, Ricard, Th. Rousseau, Servin, Tassaert, Troyon, Vollon, Ziem, etc.: Œuvre Capitale de Corot: Le Lac de Garde; Remarquable Collection de Bronzes par Barye (Paris: Imprimerie Georges Petit, May 26-27, 1902), 17, 65, (repro.), as Le Lac de Garde.
Saint-Luc, “La Collection Lutz,” Les Arts, no. 4 (May 1902): 30, (repro.), as Le Lac de Garde.
“Commissaires-Priseurs: Collection de feu M. Georges Lutz,” Le Figaro, no. 135 (May 15, 1902): 6, as Le Lac de Garde.
M. N., “Chronique des ventes: Ventes annoncées. A Paris.—Collection Georges Lutz (tableaux modernes),” Le Bulletin de l’art: ancien et moderne, no. 141 (May 24, 1902): 164, Lac de Garde.
“Au jour le jour: La collection Georges Lutz,” Le Temps, no. 14960 (May 29, 1902): unpaginated, as Lac de Garde.
Ernest Jetot, “Chez les artistes: Une belle vente,” Le Rappel, no. 11766 (May 29, 1902): unpaginated, as Lac de Garde.
Valemont, “L’Art et la curiosité: La vente de la collection Lutz,” Le Figaro, no. 149 (May 29, 1902): 4, as le Lac de Garde.
“Echos et Nouvelles,” Gil Blas, no. 8229 (May 30, 1902): 1.
“Chronique des ventes,” Le Bulletin de l’art: ancien et moderne, no. 142 (May 31, 1902): 172, as Le lac de Garde.
“Mouvement des arts: Collection Georges Lutz,” La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplement à la Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 22 (May 31, 1902): 175, as Le Lac de Garde.
A.Frappart, “Chronique des ventes,” Les Arts, no. 5 (June 1902): 35, as Lac de Garde.
“Berichten,” De Kroniek, no. 389 (June 7, 1902): 187, as het Gardameer.
“Échos et nouvelles,” Le Bulletin de l’art: ancien et moderne, no. 143 (June 7, 1902): 179, as Le lac de Garde.
“Letter
from Paris,” Builder 82, no. 3096 (June 7, 1902): 558, as Lac de Garde.
Gaston Jollivet, “Le ‘Boom’ de la peinture,” Le Grand écho du Nord de la France, no. 197 (July 17, 1902): 1.
Scaramouche, “Échos et Nouvelles,” L’Aurore, no. 1744 (July 29, 1902): 1, as le Lac de Garde.
“Petite chronique,” L’Art moderne 22, no. 31 (August 3, 1902): 263.
Complete Art Reference Catalogue (Boston: Soule Art, 1902), 274, as Lake of Garda.
Possibly Ethel Birnstingl and Alice Pollard, Corot (London: Methuen, 1904), 169, as Le lac de Garde.
“In the Galleries,” American Art News 4, no. 7 (November 25, 1905): 6, as Lac de Garde.
Maurice Hamel, Corot and His Work, vols. 1-2 (Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1905), unpaginated, (repro.), as The Lake of Garda.
Alfred Robaut, L’Œuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré précédé de l’histoire de Corot et de ses œuvres (Paris: H. Floury, 1905), no. 1667, pp. 3: 158-59, (repro.); 4: 278, 282, 284, 287, 292, as Le Lac de Garde.
Walther Gensel, Corot und Troyon (Bielefeld, Germany: Verlag von Velhagen und Klasing, 1906), 29, 114, as Gardasee.
Everard Meynell, Corot and His Friends (London: Methuen, 1908), 251, as Le Lac de Garde.
“Un Corot est vendu 402,500 fr. À New-York,” Le Matin (April 10, 1910): 1, as Lac de Garde.
“Echos,” Journal et Feuille d’Avis du Valais, no. 42 (April 12, 1910): unpaginated, as Lac de Garde.
“Fait divers: Un Corot vendu 402,500 francs a [sic] New-York,” Le Grand écho du Nord de la France, no. 103 (April 12, 1910): 4, as Lac de Garde.
Sidney Allnutt, Corot (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1910), 10, as Le Lac de Garde.
Paul Cornu, Corot: 54 gravures et portraits (Paris: Louis-Michaud, 1911), 127, 132, as Lac de Garde.
C. van Malten, “De grondleggers der schilderschool van Barbizon (Slot),” Dietsche Warande en Belfort. , no. 11 (1912): 374, as Gardameer.
“Foreign Art Auctions: Record Prices at Roussel Sale,” American Art News 10, no. 25 (March 30, 1912): 8, as Lac de Garde.
Charles Torquet, “Les Tableaux les plus chers du monde,” Le Journal, no. 7614 (February 17, 1914): 7, as Lac de Garde.
Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays, vol. 1, A-C (Paris: Ernest Gründ, 1924), 1014, as Le lac de Garde.
A Century of French Painting: Exhibition Organised under the Auspices of his Excellency the Ambassador of France in Washington for the benefit of the French Hospital of New York, exh. cat. (New York: Knoedler, 1928), unpaginated, as Le Lac de Garde.
“Art Show to Aid A Hospital Here: Examples of “A Century of French Painting” Will Be Placed on View Tomorrow. Fifty-Two Canvases in All; Andrew W. Mellon Will Lend a Corot—Millet Work From the P.A.B Widener Collection,” New York Times 78, no. 25,859 (November 11, 1928): N5, as Le Lac de Garde.
François Fosca, Corot (Paris: Librairie Fleury, 1930), 160, (repro.) as Le lac de Garde.
Loan Exhibition of Figure and Landscape Paintings by J.B.C. Corot, exh. cat. (New York: Knoedler, 1934), unpaginated, as Le Lac de Garde.
Ella S. Siple, “A Corot Exhibition in New York,” Burlington Magazine 65, no. 381 (December 1934): 290, as Lac de Garde.
Federico Ribos, ed., “Corot,” Atlántida: ilustración mensual argentina, no. 876-81 (January 1940): 67, as Lac de Garde.
Lionello Venturi, The Rabinowitz Collection (New York: Twin Editions, 1945), 79, as Lake of Garda.
24 Masterpieces: Loan Exhibition to Commemorate the Hundredth Anniversary of the Knoedler Gallery and the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Benefit of the Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat. (New York: Knoedler, 1946), unpaginated, as Le Lac de Garde.
Daniel Baud-Bovy, Corot (Geneva: Alexandre Jullien, 1957), 27, as Souvenir du Lac de Garde.
Alfred Robaut, L’Œuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré précédé de l’histoire de Corot et de ses œuvres, 2nd ed. (1905; repr., Paris: Léonce Laget, 1965), no. 1667, pp. 3: 158-59, (repro.); 4: 278, 282, 284, 287, 292, as Le Lac de Garde.
Sarah Booth Conroy, “The House in the Virginia Hunt Country That Is Home to the Paul Mellons,” New York Times 118, no. 40,671 (June 1, 1969): L72.
Donald Hoffmann, “Silvery oil by French master a memorial gift to Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 101, no. 129 (February 15, 1981): 1F, (repro.), as the Lake of Garda.
Donald Hoffmann, “A fresh look at the Nelson: Painting, rearranging give new perspective to exhibits,” Kansas City Star 104, no. 78 (December 18, 1983): 3-I.
Tom L. Freudenheim, ed., American Museum Guides: Fine Arts; A Critical Handbook to the Finest Collections in the United States (New York: Collier, 1983), 112.
John Russell, “Art View: A Friend And Steward Of the Arts Steps Down,” New York Times 134, no. 46,407 (May 12, 1985): H35.
Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions,
1977-1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), 118-19, (repro.), as View of Lake Garda.
Paul Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon: A Memoir
(New York: William Morrow, 1992), 67, 154.
Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933-1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 108, 117n5, as View of Lake Garda.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 204, (repro.), as View of Lake Garda.
Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre, La griffe et la dent: Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875) sculpteur animalier, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées nationaux, 1996), 133, as Le lac de Garde.
Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, and Vincent Pomarède, Corot, 1796-1875, exh. cat (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996), 312n5.
Gabriel P. Weisberg, Collecting in the Gilded Age: Art Patronage in Pittsburgh, 1890-1910, exh. cat. (Pittsburgh: Frick Art and Historical Center, 1997), 157-58, 173, 181, 196, 372n132, 405, (repro.), as le Lac de Garde (View of Lake Garda).
Michel Poletti, Monsieur Barye (Lausanne, Switzerland: Acatos, 2002), 310, as Le Lac de Garde.
David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 160, 574-75, 609, as Le Lac de Garde.
Richard Parker, “Pittsburgh Pirates: Biographies of Andrews Carnegie and Mellon, robber barons and philanthropists,” New York Times 156, no. 53,754 (November 5, 2006): I11.
Marina Botteri Ottaviani, Giorgio Marini, and Fernando Mazzocca, Corot e Canella: La nostalgia del lago, exh. cat. (Trento, Italy: Museo di Riva del Garda, 2008), 14, 46, (repro.), as Veduta del lago di Garda and Le Lac de Garde.
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), 115, (repro.), as View of Lake Garda.
Paul Lang, Corot en Suisse, exh. cat. (Paris: Somogy, 2010), 58n12, as Lac de Garde.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: The Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree Collection in Context, exh. cat. (Santa Barbara, CA: Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Westmont College, 2013), 138-39, as Le Lac de Garde.
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), 47, (repro.), as View of Lake Garda.
Simon Kelly, “Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, View of Lake Garda, ca. 1865–1870,” catalogue entry, and Mary Schafer, “Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, View of Lake Garda, ca. 1865–1870,” technical entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, ed., French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2021), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.504.
Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 111, (repro.).
