Venus with Cupid

Possibly François Boucher (1703–1770), Paris, by May 30, 1770;

Possibly purchased at his posthumous sale, Tableaux, desseins [sic], estampes, bronzes, terres cuites, laques, porcelaines de différentes sortes, montées et non montées, meubles curieux, bijoux, minéraux, cristallisations, madrepores, coquilles et autres curiosités, qui composent le cabinet de feu M. Boucher, premier peintre du Roi, cette vente se fera au Vieux Louvre, dans l’appartement du défunt Sieur Boucher, Boucher’s apartments, Louvre, Paris, February 18, 1771, lot 382, as Vénus debout, appuyée sur ses vêtemens, accompagnée de l’Amour, dessein [sic] au trois crayons, sur papier bleu, by Pierre Rémy, 1770 [1];

Possibly Pierre Louis Paul Randon de Boisset (1708–1776), Paris, by September 28, 1776;

Possibly purchased at his posthumous sale, Tableaux et desseins [sic] précieux des maîtres célèbres des trois écoles, figures de marbres, de bronze et de terre cuite, estampes en feuilles et autres objets du cabinet de feu M. Randon de Boisset, Receveur général des Finances, par P. Rémy, on a joint à ce catalogue celui des vases, colonnes de marbres, porcelaines, des laques, des meubles de Boule et d’autres effets précieux, Chariot, Rémy, Julliot, Paris, March 10, 1777, lot 350, as Deux différentes compositions de Vénus et l’Amour, faites au pastel, by Robert Quesney (d. 1811), 1777–1789 [2];

Possibly “Calonne Angelot,” by May 11, 1789 [3];

Possibly sold at his anonymous sale, Une belle collection de tableaux des trois écoles, dessins montés, miniatures, estampes en recueils et en feuilles, marbres, figures de bronzes, belles tables de porphyre rouge et vert du plus beau choix, meubles et autres objets curieux, composant le cabinet de M**** [Calonne Angelot], C. P. Lebrun et Brusley, Paris, May 11–14, 1789, lot 228, as Deux beaux dessins au pastel, représentant Vénus et l’Amour. Ces deux compositions différentes, sont du meilleur temps de ce Maître. Ils viennent de la Collection de M. Randon de Boisset;

With Alexander Barker, London, by March 1841 [4];

Purchased from Barker by Bindon Blood, Esq. (1775–1855), Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, and Edinburgh, as Cupid unrobing Venus, March 1841–1855 [5];

Purchased at his posthumous sale, The Very Extensive Collection of Engravings, from the Earliest Period of the Art to the present time, Formed by the Late Bindon Blood, Esq. of Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, Embracing Historical, Sacred and Profane Subjects, Portraits, Landscapes and Compositions, of the Italian, German, Dutch, Flemish, and French Schools, An Extensive Series of Engravings, After the paintings of Rubens, VanDyck [sic] and Others, The Works of Rembrandt and Hollar, The Productions of Wille and Other Engravers, A Large Assemblage of English and Foreign Portraits, Prints to Illustrate the Dictionaries of Pilkington, Strutt, Bryan, etc., Numerous Original Drawings, by the Old Masters, And a Thousand Original Sketches, by the Eminent Artist, Walter Geikie, Capital Portfolios, etc., S. Leigh Sotheby and John Wilkinson, London, July 18–23, 1856, no. 86, as Venus and Cupid, by François Rapilly, 1856 [6];

With Richard H[ans] Zinser, Forest Hills, Queens, NY, stock no. 439, as Venus with Cupid, by March 11, 1966 [7];

Purchased from Zinser by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1966.

NOTES

[1] Rémy (1715/6–1797) was a dealer and author of Boucher’s posthumous sale catalogue. According to an annotation in that catalogue, he bought the drawing from this sale.

The early provenances of Boucher’s multiple pastel drawings of a nude, standing Venus are often difficult to differentiate. Boucher’s posthumous sale featured a Standing Venus, Leaning Against Her Clothes, Accompanied by Love, which was a “drawing in three crayons, on blue paper.” Technical analysis by Rachel Freeman, conservator, paper and Asian art, NAMA, has shown that this Boucher drawing does feature multiple colors, but the paper is a cream/beige color rather than blue.

The Albertina Museum’s François Boucher, Venus with Apple and Cupid of 1763 features black and white chalk on blue natural paper colored brown, so the artist did sometimes tone his papers before settling down to draw. See François Boucher, Venus with Apple and Cupid, 1763, black and white chalk, blue natural paper colored brown, 14 1/2 x 8 7/20 in. (36.8 x 21.2 cm), Albertina Museum, Vienna, Inv. Nr. 12131, https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/?query=search=/record/objectnumbersearch=12131&showtype=record.

After further discussion with Alastair Laing and Neil Jeffares, it is very likely that the unusual pose of Venus “leaning against her clothes,” as well as the strong potential that catalogue author Pierre Rémy made a mistake in noting the paper color, confirms the early provenance of the Nelson-Atkins Boucher. The works in the 1771 posthumous Boucher sale and the 1777 posthumous Randon de Boisset sale have the same dimensions and descriptions and are likely the same work. According to Laing, “we do not have such a well-matched pair, each with Cupid, as the Randon de Boisset and ‘Calonne Angelot’ sales.” See email thread from Alastair Laing, Boucher expert, and Neil Jeffares, pastel expert, to Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Rachel Freeman, Meghan Gray, and Glynnis Napier Stevenson, NAMA, begun April 30, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.

[2] Pierre Rémy organized the Randon de Boisset sale in 1777; therefore, it is possible that he inserted the Boucher pastel into the sale, and Randon de Boisset did not own the work at all.

[3] According to the Getty Provenance Index, “There is a good chance that Calonne Angelot was a fictitious name. It appears that most, if not all, of the lots had belonged a short time earlier to the dealers A. J. Lebrun or Langlier. The name appears nowhere other than as an annotation on this catalogue.” “Sale Catalog F-A967,” Getty Provenance Index, Los Angeles.

[4] See inscription on verso of mounting card in graphite in a hand that matches Bindon Blood’s: f/ / Barker [Ane (?)] 1820 / March / 1841. The inscription probably means Blood bought the pastel from (“f/”) Barker for an amount of 1820 in March 1841.

For further corroboration of Blood’s style of inscription and confirmation of Barker selling to Blood in March 1841, see email from Glynnis Napier Stevenson, NAMA, to Hugo Chapman, British Museum, London, February 16, 2022, NAMA curatorial files. See also Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et d’Estampes (Amsterdam: Vereenigde Drukkerijen, 1921), no. L.3011.

Alexander Barker (1802–1873), based in London and Yorkshire, was a collector and dealer who also frequently worked with the Rothschilds. See “Barker, Alexander,” Grove Art Online (2003): http://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T006390.

[5] Bindon Blood was a collector of prints and antique books. He acquired the nickname “the Vampire” for his voracious appetite for these objects at auction.

[6] For buyer’s last name, see annotated sales catalogue from the Philadelphia Museum of Art Library. The Rapilly family were publishers of prints and art publications active on Paris’s Quai Malaquais; François Rapilly (1820–1892) was a print dealer attached to the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

[7] See a letter from Richard H[ans] Zinser to Ross Taggart, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, March 4, 1966, NAMA curatorial files, which says, “this pastel was for many years as a loan from the imperial family deposited in this [Albertina’s] Drawing collection. But after the first war, all claims for property of the imperial family, was handed over to them, as well as many of the imperial Crown jewels.”

In 1919, the ownership of Royal Habsburg collection passed from the Habsburgs to the newly founded Republic of Austria. In 1921, the Albertina Museum was created with this collection. However, because there are no identifying marks on this pastel, it is unlikely that the work was owned by Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen. See email from Meghan Gray, NAMA, to Julia Eßl, Albertina Museum, December 12–14, 2018, and Julia Eßl to Glynnis Napier Stevenson, NAMA, October 12, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.

From 1895 until 1919, Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen (1856–1936), owned a collection of prints and drawings that he inherited from his uncle, Archduke Albrecht Friedrich Rudolf Dominik of Austria, Duke of Teschen (1817–1895). In 1921, these formed the collection of the Albertina Museum, Vienna.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art did not purchase the pastel until 1966, which the Albertina’s provenance specialist Julia Eßl argues is a long time after the Albertina acquired the Habsburgs’ old collection and other old Habsburg items were sold through the Viennese auctioneer Albert Kende in the early 1930s. However, this does not negate that Zinser may have owned the pastel for a long time. See Julia Eßl, Albertina Museum, to Glynnis Napier Stevenson, NAMA, October 12, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.

The Nelson-Atkins acquired from Zinser a facsimile of Venus with Cupid (1730–70; Albertina Museum, https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/?query=search=/record/objectnumbersearch=12133&showtype=record) at the same time as the acquisition of the pastel. There are several other interesting, related works in that collection.

Due diligence has been performed on sales catalogues that contain Boucher works from the 1750s until 1966. Additional care has been taken to research the window from 1933 to 1945. Due to the suggested provenance from the Albertina, we looked at the well-documented sales from Albert Kende Auction House in Vienna in 1933 and the Dorotheum in Vienna in 1941. Neither of these sales, which both featured works formerly in the Habsburg Collections, contained this drawing.

See Kunstmobiliar, Luster, Uhren, Bronzen, kunstgewerbliche Gegenstände usw. aus der Louis-XVI., Empire– und Biedermeierzeit, ein grosser Savonerie-Teppich aus dem Beginn des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Teppiche, Gemälde alter Meister aus dem Wiener Palais und den österreichischen Schlössern des Herrn Erzherzog Friedrich (Vienna: Auktionshaus Albert Kende, February 8–10, 1933); and Gemälde des 15. bis 20. Jahrhunderts, Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen, Graphik, Skulpturen, Möbel, Porzellan, Gläser, Arbeiten aus Gold, Silber und Metall, darunter eine Feinzinnsammlung: Versteigerung (Katalog Nr. 467) (Vienna: Dorotheum Kunstabteilung, July 8–10, 1941).