Potato Planting in Spring
Framed: 27 1/8 x 32 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (68.9 x 81.92 x 6.99 cm)
14ème Exposition de Pastellistes Français, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, opened April 7, 1898, no. 73, as Plantation de pommes de terre au printemps.
Possibly Rhode Island Collects Paper: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from Rhode Island Private Collections, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, March 7–April 27, 1986, unnumbered, as Peasant Family.
Léon Lhermitte (1844–1925), Galerie Michael, Los Angeles, November 3–December 31, 1989; Altman/Burke Fine Arts, New York, February 22–March 24, 1990, no. 23, as Planting Potatoes.
Revolution in Form: Tampa Collects French Art 1800–1950, Tampa Museum of Art, FL, June 2–August 18, 1991, no. 61, as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Possibly French Paintings from Private Collections, Tampa Museum of Art, FL, September–November 5, 1995, no cat.
Paris 1860–1930: Birthplace of European Modernism, Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL, January 13–March 12, 1999; Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, March 20–June 15, 2000, unnumbered, as Potato Planting in the Spring.
19th and 20th Century Master Drawings, Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York, July 5–11, 2008, unnumbered, as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Magnificent Gifts for the 75th, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 13–April 4, 2010, no cat., as Potato Planting in the Spring.
From Farm to Table: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterworks on Paper, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no cat., as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Farming and rustic life were at a moment of great transition in the mid- to late nineteenth century France, set against the backdrop of the industrial revolution during which the mechanization of farming changed the relationship between humanity and nature. And yet, no evidence of that shift is present in this pastel, in which Lhermitte depicts a rural worker who digs a trench by hand in a small garden, preparing a place for his female counterpart to place a potato tuber. Setting the figures against a hazy sky and a landscape just beginning to green and bloom in the spring sun, Lhermitte represents the laborers with genuine empathy as if to memorialize their way of life in an era of cataclysmic change.
Probably with the artist until at least April 7, 1898;
With Boussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris, pastel stock no. 14120 [1];
Dr. Schweisguth (probably Charles “Daniel” Schweisguth, [1865–1943]), Paris [2];
Purchased from Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Pastels, Gravures Par: Barye (A.–L.) – Besnard – Boldini – Boudin – Chéret – Cross – Degas – Delacroix – Detaille – Foujita – Frank Will – Guys – Harpignies – Isabey – Jongkind – Laprade – Leloir – Lhermitte – Monnier – Puvis de Chavannes – Stenlein – Vernet – Veyressat – De Waroquier – Willette – Etc; Tableaux Modernes Par: Balfourier – Blanchard – Charlot – Clairin – Delpy (H.–C.) – Dufeu – Dupray – Eberl – Fantin–Latour – Favory – Flandrin – Guillaumin – Harpignies – Hébert – Kvapil – Lebasque – Lefebvre – Le Noir – Lotiquet – De Luna – Marchand – Mathey – Méheut – De Neuville – Olive – Picard Ledoux – Pierre – Pigal – Planson – Ribot – Ph. Rousseau – Sabbagh – Valtat – Vollon – Ziem – Etc; Assiette décoré par Vlaminck; Sculptures Par: Carpeaux – Jeanniot – Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 12, 1941, no. 36, as La plantation des pommes de terre, by André Schoeller on behalf of Gérard frères, March–June 1941 [3];
Purchased from Gérard frères, stock no. 1651, as Plantation p. de terre, by Muller et Clair, Paris, June 20, 1941 [4];
Purchased from Hervé Chassaing, Jacques Rivet, et Rémi Fournié, Hôtel des Ventes Saint-Georges, Toulouse, December 15, 1982 [5];
With Galerie du Lethé, Paris, 1982–1983;
With Galerie de l’Obsidienne, Paris, 1983;
Private collection, Rhode Island, April 1983;
Private collection, France, by 1987;
Purchased from the latter by Galerie Jacques Bailly, Paris, 1987;
Jane Schnitzer, by 1988 [6];
Purchased from Schnitzer by Altman/Burke Fine Arts, New York, 1988–no later than 1991;
Purchased from Altman/Burke by Samuel Blatt (b. 1942), Boca Raton, FL, by June 2, 1991–2008 [7];
Purchased from Blatt, through Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York, by James W. Sight (b. 1955) and Dr. Heidi A. Harman (b. ca. 1959), Prairie Village, KS, 2008–2014;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2014.
NOTES:
[1] Info from Monique Le Pelley Fonteny, Léon Augustin Lhermitte: (1844–1925); catalogue raisonné (Paris: Éditions Cercle d’Art, 1991), no. 26, p. 167. In 1887, Boussod, Valadon, et Cie signed an exclusive contract with Lhermitte to sell his paintings and pastels. It appears the stock numbers for pastels were kept separately from those for paintings. See email from Sylvie Brame, Brame et Lorenceau, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, January 14, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] This may be Charles “Daniel” Schweisguth (1865–1943), a Paris doctor who collected pastels and donated several works to the Louvre in 1895. This pastel was not included in the 1924 sale of Schweisguth’s collection.
[3] The inscription next to lot no. 36 in the minutes from the March 12, 1941 sale reads: “Pastel [Schoeller] seize mille / francs”. See “Commisseur-priseur: ADER, Etienne, Minutes, D42E3 185,” Archives de Paris, France.
[4] See email from Magdelaine Dickinson, Wildenstein-Plattner Institute, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, January 14, 2021, NAMA curatorial files. See “Mars–juin 1941, Salesbook of Gérard frères,” Wildenstein-Plattner Institute, New York, where the name “Clair” is listed as the buyer of the Lhermitte. That dealership was originally founded by Georges Muller (b. 1892) at 5, rue La Boétie. Muller, who was Jewish, was forced to sell the gallery on June 7, 1941. Its buyer was his business partner François Clair (1899–1958). The gallery operated under the name Muller et Clair throughout the war, and was registered in the commercial registry of Paris in 1945. We have thus far been unable to confirm when Clair sold the picture. There’s no record of it in the following archive with documentation of Muller et Clair during the war: “Archives de Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives, Dossiers d’Aryanisation des Biens “Non Revendiqués” de la Section VI,” AJ/38/2870, dossier 7425, Archives nationales, Paris.
[5] E. Mayer, International Auction Records, vol. 17 (New York: Editions Publisol, 1983), 477.
[6] This is possibly the Jane Schnitzer (1922-2015) married to Irving Schnitzer; born March 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, died August 31, 2015 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
[7] A label on the back of the frame states, “Courtesy of Sandy Blatt.” See also the notes from a telephone conversation between Sandy Blatt and Nicole Myers, NAMA, June 19, 2014, NAMA curatorial files.
Catalogue général officiel de l’exposition universelle de 1889, vol. 1 (Lille: Imprimerie L. Danel, 1889), 327, as La plantation des pommes de terre.
L. Roger-Milès, “Beaux–Arts: Societé de Pastellistes Français: Cinquiéme Exposition,” L’Evénement, no. 6,221 (April 6, 1889): unpaginated, as la Plantation de pommes de terre.
“Exposition des Pastellistes,” Journal des débats (April 7, 1889): 2, as la Plantation des pommes de terre au printemps.
Charles Frémene, “Les Pastellistes,” Le Rappel, no. 6,967 (April 7, 1889): unpaginated, as Plantation de pommes de terre au printemps.
“Le mouvement artistique,” L’Intérét public (April 9, 1889).
“Mouvement artistique: Exposition des pastellistes,”Le Mot d’ordre, no. 99 (April 9, 1889): unpaginated, as Plantation de pommes de terre au printemps.
Alfred Darcel, “Exposition de la Société des Pastellistes Français,” Journal de Rouen, no. 101 (April 12, 1889): unpaginated.
Desclinville, Journal de l’Aisne (April 17, 1889).
Olivier Merson, “Chronique des Beaux-Arts,” Le Monde Illustré 64, no. 1,673 (April 20, 1889): 262, as Plantation de pommes de terre.
“M. L. Lhermitte à l’Exposition des pastellistes,”Courrier de l’Aisne (April 29–30, 1889), unpaginated, as Plantation de pommes de terre au printemps.
A Record of Art in 1898 (French Section) (London: The Studio, 1898), 14, as Plantation des pommes de terre au printemps.
Catalogue des Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Pastels, Gravures Par: Barye (A.–L.) – Besnard – Boldini – Boudin – Chéret – Cross – Degas – Delacroix – Detaille – Foujita – Frank Will – Guys – Harpignies – Isabey – Jongkind – Laprade – Leloir – Lhermitte – Monnier – Puvis de Chavannes – Stenlein – Vernet – Veyressat – De Waroquier – Willette – Etc; Tableaux Modernes Par: Balfourier – Blanchard – Charlot – Clairin – Delpy (H.–C.) – Dufeu – Dupray – Eberl – Fantin–Latour – Favory – Flandrin – Guillaumin – Harpignies – Hébert – Kvapil – Lebasque – Lefebvre – Le Noir – Lotiquet – De Luna – Marchand – Mathey – Méheut – De Neuville – Olive – Picard Ledoux – Pierre – Pigal – Planson – Ribot – Ph. Rousseau – Sabbagh – Valtat – Vollon – Ziem – Etc; Assiette décoré par Vlaminck; Sculptures Par: Carpeaux – Jeanniot – Paris (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, March 12, 1941), 7, as La plantation de pommes de terre.
“Á l’hôtel Drouot: Un bronze de Rodin des tableaux et des bijoux,” Le Matin, no. 20,804 (March 14, 1941): 2.
Les ventes de tableaux, aquarelles, gouaches, dessins, miniatures a l’Hotel Drouot, vol. 1, Octobre 1940 à juillet 1941 (Paris: L’Archipel, 1941), 91, as La Plantation des pommes de terre.
Irene Konefal, “Drawings by Millet and Lhermitte in the Johnson Collection,” Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 75, no. 324 (March 1979): 24.
E. Mayer, International Auction Records, vol. 17 (New York: Editions Publisol, 1983): 477, as Plantation de pommes de terre.
Possibly Deborah J. Johnson, Rhode Island Collects Paper: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from Rhode Island Private Collections, exh. cat. (Providence, RI: Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, 1986), unpaginated, as Peasant Family.
Ivo Kirschen, ed., Leon Lhermitte (1844–1925), exh. cat. (Beverly Hills: Galerie Michel, 1989), unpaginated, (repro.), as Planting Potatoes.
Pamela Hammond, “Reviews: Los Angeles—Leon Lhermitte,” ARTnews 89, no. 3 (March 1990): 195, (repro.), as Planting Potatoes.
Ann S. Olson, ed., Revolution in Form: Tampa Collects French Art 1800–1950, exh. cat. (Tampa: Tampa Museum of Art, 1991), 19, 40, (repro.), as Potato Planting in Spring.
Maggie Hall, “Lasting Impressions,” Tampa Tribune, no. 185 (August 3, 1991): (repro.), as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Monique Le Pelley Fonteny, Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925): catalogue raisonné (Paris: Éditions Cercle d’Art, 1991), no. 26, pp. 167, 506, (repro.), as Plantation de pommes de terre au printemps.
Possibly Joanne Milani, “Shows Reviewed,” Tampa Tribune (September 22, 1995): 17.
Ofir Scheps, Paris 1860–1930: Birthplace of European Modernism, exh. cat. (Boca Raton, FL: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 1999), unpaginated, (repro.), as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Pierre Sanchez, Les Expositions de la Galerie Georges Petit (1881–1934): Repertoire des Artistes et Liste de Leurs Oeuvres, vol. 5 (Dijon: L’Echelle de Jacob, 2011), 1249, as Plantation de pomme de terre au printemps.
“Jim Sight and Heidi Harman Support Collection,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Winter 2014): 26, (repro.), as Potato Planting in the Spring.
Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Léon-Augustin Lhermitte, Potato Planting in Spring, 1888,” catalogue entry and Rachel Freeman, “Léon-Augustin Lhermitte, Potato Planting in Spring, 1888,” 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, 2022), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.624.
