Alexandre Brongniart

Jean-Antoine Houdon1777

Details

Title: Alexandre Brongniart
Creator: Jean-Antoine Houdon
Date Created: 1777
Physical Dimensions: overall: 39.2 x 28.7 x 19 cm (15 7/16 x 11 5/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
Provenance: By inheritance to the sitter's great-nephew, Baron Jérome Pichon; (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 29 March-10 April 1897, no. 1009); Joseph Bardac, Paris;[1] (Galerie Seligmann, Paris); sold 21 February 1911 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[2] gift 1942 to NGA. [1] According to German Seligman, _Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting_, New York, 1961: 13, it was Sigismond Bardac who sold the busts to his father, Jacques Seligmann. However, according to René Gimpel, _Diary of an Art Dealer_, New York, 1966: 7-8, it was Joseph Bardac, Sigismond's brother, who owned both the marbles of the Brongniart children and the terracottas; Gimpel sold the terracottas to Widener. [2] See notes of Charles Seymour, Jr., about busts by Houdon in the NGA collection, and the letter of 17 January 1911 from Joseph Bardac to Jacques Seligmann, in NGA curatorial files.
Medium: marble

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more