Loading
Galatea
Robert Le Lorrain1701
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: Galatea
- Creator: Robert Le Lorrain
- Date Created: 1701
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 75.1 x 37.7 x 45.1 cm (29 9/16 x 14 13/16 x 17 3/4 in.) gross weight: 207 lb. (93.895 kg)
- Provenance: Académie Royale, Paris, 1701; Museum of French Art, Versailles; given October 1819 to the Maréchal family, descendants of the sculptor;[1] Jean-Baptiste Henry (_sic_) Collin, comte de Sussy [1750-1826], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence, Paris, 13-17 and 19-23 March 1832, 5th day, unnumbered, under "Marbres").[2] François Coty, Chateau du Puy d'Artigny and Pavillon Du Barry, Louveciennes; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17-18 December 1936, no. 45); (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London);[3] sold June 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] Louis Courajod, _Histoire du département de la sculpture moderne au Musée du Louvre_, Paris, 1894: 92, which gives the 1819 date as 10 October; and André Fontaine, _Les collections de l'Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture_, Paris, 1930: xii, 126, 162, which gives the date as 5 October. The sculpture was given to the family in exchange for a marble medallion of Louis XIV by Girardon, who collaborated with Le Lorrain. Michèle Beaulieu, in her article "Un grand sculpteur méconnu," _Le Jardin des Arts_ (June 1956): 487, and her monograph _Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743)_, Neuilly-sur Seine, 1982: 50-52, 86, 115-118, no. 108, figs. 51 and 53, cites documentation at the Archives of the Musée du Louvre in Paris (P10, 1819, 25 June, and S10, 1819, 5 October) and identifies Mr. Maréchal as the grandson of the sculptor. However, he was not the grandson, but the great-grandson of the sculptor, namely Armand Jean Louis Maréchal (1774-after 1851), information that was kindly shared with NGA by Bent Sorenson. See his e-mails of 23 and 28 September 2016, in NGA curatorial files, which cite additional documentation about Maréchal in the Archives nationales, Paris (Minutier central des notaires de Paris), and the Archives de Paris (Fichiers alphabétiques de l'état civil reconstitué); see also Bent Sorensen, "The Parisian career of the sculptor Jacques François Joseph Saly, 1749-53," _The Burlington Magazine_ 158 (November 2016): 893 n. 19. [2] Beaulieu (see note 1) further notes that direct descendants of Maréchal sold the sculpture through a dealer to Kress. However, Frédéric Chappey, curator of the Musées de la Ville de l'Isle-Adam, brought to the attention of NGA curator Alison Luchs (letter of 4 January 1994, in NGA curatorial files) an 1832 estate sale of the comte de Sussy that included the marble _Galatea_. Chappey proposed to identify De Sussy as the son-in-law of Mr. Maréchal, but this remains unconfirmed, as does any relationship to the Maréchal family of F. Coty, the seller in 1936 (see note 3). The year is printed twice on the title page of the sale catalogue, as both 1831 and 1832; according to Lugts, 1832 is the correct year. [3] A newspaper clipping in the NGA Library's copy of the sale catalogue lists Wildenstein as the buyer of _Galatea_. [4] The Wildenstein invoice to the Kress Foundation for 16 items, including this sculpture, is dated 23 June 1949 (copy in NGA curatorial files). It lists the previous collections as "Collection of the Académie Royale, Dépôt de Versailles until 1819, M. Maréchal, grandson of Robert Le Lorrain, and M. François Coty, Chateau de Louveciennes (?)."
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: marble
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.