General Séré de Rivières
Framed: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 1/8 inches (41.28 x 33.66 x 2.86 cm)
Œuvre Graphique de Toulouse-Lautrec, Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, January 30–March 15, 1954, no. 299, as Le Général Raymond Séré de Rivières à cheval.
The Art of Drawing: XVIth to XIXth Centuries, Wildenstein and Co., London, May 9–June 16, 1956, no. 103, as General Séré de Rivières on Horseback.
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. 25, as General Séré de Rivières (Le Général Séré de Rivières).
Painters and Paper: Bloch Works on Paper, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 20, 2017–March 11, 2018, no cat.
When frequent illnesses kept him bedridden, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec perfected the techniques of drawing, watercolor, and oil painting. When he was about 17 or 18 years old, he produced this portrait depicting General Séré de Rivières, a member of an important French noble family.
Although Toulouse-Lautrec likely did not add the graphite inscription in the bottom-right corner that reads “from a photo” (he would not have written in English), it is probably correct. Working from a photograph would have helped the young artist determine how to resolve problems of drawing contours and volumes.
Possibly General Raymond-Adolphe Séré de Rivières (1815–1895), by 1895 [1];
By descent to his granddaughter, Aline Séré de Rivières (1879–1972), Nice, by May 1955;
Purchased from Séré de Rivières by Wildenstein and Co., New York, May 1955–1960 [2];
Purchased from Wildenstein by James W. Johnson (d. 1970), Cannes, 1960–December 1, 1970 [3];
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, December 1, 1970, lot 39, as Le Général Séré de Rivières à cheval, by Waterloo Fine Art, London, 1970 [4];
Mrs. M. J. Jacobs, by March 30, 1977 [5];
With an anonymous dealer, Tokyo, by November 14, 1990 [6];
Purchased from this dealer at Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolors, Sotheby’s, New York, November 14, 1990, lot 101, through Susan L. Brody and Associates, Inc., New York, by Marion (née Helzberg, 1931–2013) and Henry (1922–2019) Bloch, Shawnee Mission, KS, 1990–June 15, 2015;
Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
NOTES:
[1] General Raymond-Adolphe Séré de Rivières (1815–1895) was Toulouse-Lautrec’s second cousin twice removed. See Henri Ortholan, Le général Séré de Rivières: Le Vauban de la Revanche (Paris: Bernard Giovanangeli, 2003), 38–39.
[2] For these ownership dates, see email from Joseph Baillio, Wildenstein and Co., to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, May 21, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.
[3] The buyer was probably James Wood Johnson (1907–1970) of Fort Lauderdale. Johnson married a Frenchwoman, Camille Leboutet (1896–1983), so he often spent time in France.
[4] Waterloo Fine Art operated out of Britannia Hotel (today the Biltmore Mayfair) in Grosvenor Square. It seems to have been active only during the 1970s.
[5] Mrs. M. J. Jacobs offered General Séré de Rivières at auction in 1977, but it failed to sell. See Important Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolours (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, March 30, 1977), unpaginated, lot 103. The auctioneer’s book does not record Jacobs’s full name or city of residence, nor does it indicate whether General Séré de Rivières was returned to Jacobs after the auction or purchased post-sale. See email from Lucy Economakis, Sotheby’s, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, December 12, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.
[6] See email from Lucy Economakis, Sotheby’s, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, December 12, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.
Œuvre Graphique de Toulouse-Lautrec, exh. cat. (Nice: Galerie des Ponchettes, 1954), unpaginated, as Le Général Raymond Séré de Rivières à cheval.
The Art of Drawing: XVIth to XIXth Centuries, exh. cat. (London: Wildenstein, 1956), 26, as General Séré de Rivières on Horseback.
Anita Brookner, "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: Drawings at Messrs Wildenstein," Burlington Magazine 98, no. 640 (July 1956): 249, 251, (repro.), as General Séré de Rivières.
Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, December 1, 1970), 24, (repro.), as Le Général Séré de Rivières à cheval.
M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son œuvre (New York: Collectors Editions, 1971), no. A.193, pp. 3:496–97, (repro.), as Le Général Séré de Rivières.
Art Prices Current: A Record of Sale Prices at the Principal London, Continental, and American Auction Rooms, vol. 48, August 1970 to July 1971 (Folkestone, England: Wm. Dawsons and Sons, 1973), A83, as Le General Sere de Rivieres a cheval [sic].
Catalogue of Important Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolours (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, March 30, 1977), unpaginated, (repro.), as Le Général Séré de Rivières.
Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolors (New York: Sotheby’s, November 14, 1990), unpaginated, (repro.), as Le Général Séré de Rivières.
Henri Ortholan, Le général Séré de Rivières: Le Vauban de la Revanche (Paris: Bernard Giovanangeli, 2003), 39, 39n31.
Bobbie Leigh, "Magnificent Obsession," Art and Antiques 29, no. 6 (June 2006): 61, 63, (repro.).
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), 12, 132–33, 161, (repro), as General Séré de Rivières (Le Général Séré de Rivières).
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), 116, (repro.), as General Séré de Rivières.
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," The 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].
Louise Nicholson, "How Kansas City got its magnificent museum," Apollo: The International Art Magazine (April 7, 2017): https://www.apollo-magazine.com/how-kansas-city-got-its-magnificent-museum/.
Brigid M. Boyle, “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, General Séré de Rivières, 1881–1882,” catalogue 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, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.904.5407.
