Jean-François Ducis

Félix Doistau (1846-1936), by July 1905-June 9, 1909 [1];

Purchased at his sale, Tableaux et pastels…bustes en marbre et terre cuite par Pajou…Collections de M. Félix Doistau, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 9-11, 1909, lot 262, by Davis [2];

Edgard Stern (1854-1937), Paris, by 1912-1937 [3];

By inheritance to his wife, Marguerite Stern (née Fould, 1866-1956), Paris, 1937-no later than 1944;

Confiscated from Stern by German National Socialist (Nazi) forces, by 1944-July 1945 [4];

Recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point, July 1945-August 23, 1946 [5];

Returned by Allied forces to France, August 23, 1946-October 4, 1946;

Restituted to Marguerite Stern, Paris, October 4, 1946-1956 [6];

By descent through the Stern family, 1956-March 23, 1982;

Purchased at their sale, Succession de Monsieur S., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 23, 1982, lot 41, by Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, on joint account with Alex Wengraf, Ltd., London, 1982-1983 [7];

Purchased from Thomas Agnew and Sons and Alex Wengraf, Ltd. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1983.

NOTES:

[1] Doistau lent this sculpture to an exhibition at the Musée de Bagatelle in 1905. See Raymond Bouyer, “Le Musée de Bagatelle,” La Revue politique er littéraire: revue des cours littéraires… IV, no. 2 (July 8, 1905): 63.

[2] According to an annotated copy of the sales catalogue, Bibliothèque nationale de France: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1245816x/f90.item.r=%22galerie%20georges%20petit%22doistau

[3] The sculpture is described as in Stern’s collection in Henri Stein, Augustin Pajou (Paris: Librairie central des beaux-arts, 1912), 52-53, 409.

[4] This sculpture was removed from Stern’s home at 20, avenue Montaigne, Paris, and inventoried at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg under the collection ‘C. St’. The date of the confiscation is not listed in the ERR records. It was transferred to the Nazi repository at the Neues Schloß, Herrenchiemsee, Germany, where it was inventoried as number 40 in crate K73. Copies of ERR and Allied documents are in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[5] Crate K73, in which the Pajou sculpture was stored, was included on an Allied inventory of crates at Herrenchiemsee dated July 11, 1945. The sculpture was transferred to the Hotel Kronprinz, garage #1, Prien, Germany, by September 30, 1945, and subsequently to the Munich Central Collecting Point on October 22, 1945, where it was assigned inventory number 11487. It was repatriated to France on August 23, 1946. Copies of Munich property cards are in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.

[6] Ministère de l’Europe et des affaires étrangers, Archives diplomatiques, Paris, Série CRA – Dossiers de reclamation adressés à la Commission de recuperation artistique (1939-1974), 209SUP/8, file 45.87, Liste des tableaux et objets d’art appartenant à Madame Edgard STERN, 29, rue Auguste Vacquerie, PARIS I6e, volés par les Allemands, retrouvés en Allemagne, restitués le 4 octobre 1946. Copies in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[7] According to Patricia Wengraf, Patricia Wengraf, Ltd., in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, February 2, 2017, NAMA curatorial files and the National Gallery Library Archive, London, Thomas Agnew and Sons Archive, NGA27/1/4/7, sculpture stock book, 1979-2009.