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Family Portrait
François-Hubert Drouais1756
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
We don’t know who this family is, but the inscription on the lid of the box on the floor tells us the date: April 1, 1756. It was a tradition in 18th-century France to exchange gifts on April 1, and this wealthy family has gathered around the mother’s dressing table to shower her with presents. This intimate and informal work is different from earlier European portraits. Typically, family portraits celebrated lineage, social status, and patriarchal authority. Here, Drouais expresses a new, modern ideal of the family: an emotional unit bound by mutual affection and the pleasures of luxury.
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Details
- Title: Family Portrait
- Creator: François-Hubert Drouais
- Date Created: 1756
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 244 x 195 cm (96 1/16 x 76 3/4 in.) framed: 281.9 x 224.8 x 21 cm (111 x 88 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)
- Provenance: (Wertheimer, London);[1] purchased 1889 by Samuel Cunliffe-Lister, 1st baron Masham [1815-1906], Swinton Park, near Bedale, Yorkshire;[2] by inheritance to his son, Samuel Cunliffe Cunliffe-Lister, 2nd baron Masham [1857-1917], Swinton Park; by inheritance to his brother, John Cunliffe Cunliffe-Lister, 3rd baron Masham [1867-1924], Swinton Park; by inheritance to his cousin, Lady Lloyd-Greame [née Mary Constance Boynton, later Viscountess Swinton, d. 1974], Swinton Park; purchased November 1936 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris, stock no, 29845);[3] purchased 1942 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA. [1] Writers about the painting have proposed that it may have been the picture entitled _La Toilette_ which was featured in the 10 March 1845 sale of the Marquis de Cypierre, or that it had belonged to the music hall singer and impresario, Aristide Bruant (1851-1925) before its acquisition by Wertheimer. Neither claim can at present be substantiated. "Wertheimer" was the dealer Charles J. Wertheimer of London and Paris, who also owned for a time Jean Antoine Watteau's _Ceres (Summer)_ (NGA 1961.9.50). Viscount Swinton, in a letter of 1 June 1950 to Fern Rusk Shapley (in NGA curatorial files), related that Wertheimer had refused to disclose to his wife's grandfather the name of the previous owner. He reported an uncorroborated tale according to which the husband in the painting was a banker to Louis XV who had tried to monopolize the French wheat market and had thereby brought disgrace upon his family. He goes on to state that the reputed name of the sitter was a "M. de Paris." [2] The painting is listed in a Duveen Brothers "Callers Book" in an entry for 21 September 1925, when Edward Duveen, Captain Ernest Duveen, and Walter Dowdeswell visited Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister (1884-1972) and saw the following painting by Drouais: "Large picture of an unknown lady and gentleman and child - full-length, lifesize. This is a most important picture, and nothing seems to be known about it except that Lady Cunliffe-Lister says it was bought from Wertheimer" (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Duveen Archive; copy in NGA curatorial files). Viscount Swinton confirmed this information and supplied the date of purchase from Wertheimer in his 1950 letter (see note 1). [3] Lady Lloyd-Greame was the daughter of Rev. Charles Ingram William Boynton (d. 1928) and Mary Eubank Cunliffe-Lister (d. 1896), herself the daughter of the 1st baron Masham. In 1912, she married Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame (1884-1972), who assumed the surname of Cunliffe-Lister in 1924 after the death of the 3rd baron Masham; he later became the Viscount Swinton (1935) and 1st earl of Swinton in 1955. The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm's ultimately successful effort to purchase the painting that begin by at least 14 May 1925, before the visit described in note 1, when Lady Cunliffe-Lister told Duveen's representative that "this picture [would be] the last she would sell" (telegram from Ernest Duveen, London, to Duveen Brothers, New York, and other documents; Duveen Brothers Records, Getty Research Institute Library, Los Angeles, accession no. 960015, reel 92, box 237, folder 5; copies and transcriptions in NGA curatorial files). Also Duveen NY Stockbook no. 19, no. 29845 (also copies NGA curatorial files). [4] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/988.
- Medium: oil on canvas
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