Emil Bührle Collection

«Jean-Baptiste Greuze»

Laurent Pécheux

Wrongly attributed

Oil on canvas

73 x 60 cm

Vergrössern

Drucken

Provenance

1Art market Paris • 1831 Jean Martin, Charles Masson, «Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné de Jean-Baptiste Greuze», in Camille Mauclair, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Paris 1906, no. 1201.

2Private collection France • until April 1940 AStEGB, Letter from Roger Dequoy, Paris, to Emil Bührle, 18 November 1944, with detailed provenances of three of the pictures acquired from Wildenstein in October 1941, on behalf of the Office suisse de compensation (Schweizerische Verrechnungsstelle), Zurich. Dequoy states that the painting had been in the family of its former owner for many years.

3M. R. Pernet France • 1940/41 Letter as above, n. (2).

4Georges Wildenstein Paris • by 1941 Represented by Roger Duquoy, AStEGB, Receipt from Roger Duquoy, 57, rue La Boétie, Paris, made out to Emil Bührle, Hôtel Ritz, Paris, 1 October 1941, regarding the purchase of five paintings, including Greuze, Laurent Pécheux.

5Emil Bührle Zurich • 1 October 1941 until [d.] 28 November 1956 Acquired from the above for FF 500.000 minus a 10% discount (FF 50.000) = FF 450.000, as part of a group of 5 paintings, for which Emil Bührle paid a total sum of FF 6.000.000, Receipt as above, n. (4). For the price of Greuze, Laurent Pécheux AStEGB, Letter from Emil Bührle to Office suisse de compensation (Schweizerische Verrechnungsstelle), Zurich, 13 September 1944; this letter contains also the information that Bührle purchased the French Francs at the exchange rate of CHF 2.92 = FF 100. Following its acquisition by Bührle and its transport to Berlin, on 28 November 1942 the painting was directed to «Carinhall», the estate of Hermann Göring near Berlin, where it was kept until July 1944 before being released and handed over to a representative of Bührle in Berlin (Nancy H. Yeide, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Hermann Goering Collection, Dallas 2009, no. A1257). Emil Bührle was not aware of the «detour» of his painting which was orchestrated by the art dealers Hans Wendland and Walter Andreas Hofer. He showed photographs of the new acquisitions he had just made in Paris to his fellow collector Oskar Reinhart when Reinhart visited him on 14 November 1941 (Archive Collection Oskar Reinhart «Am Römerholz», Winterthur, Notizbuch no. 51/I, p. 171). Bührle also offered to lend the painting to the exhibition Ausländische Kunst in Zürich at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1943 (Archive Kunsthaus Zurich, Ausstellungen 1943, Letter from Wilhelm Wartmann [director of the Kunsthaus], Zurich, to Emil Bührle, 23 May 1943, and AStEGB, List of paintings offered for the 1943 exhibition), although it had not yet reached Switzerland (and would not do so in time for the exhibition).

6Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection Zurich • 1960 Inv. 135.

AStEGB = Archive of the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich

Exhibitions

1950Europäische Kunst 13.–20. Jahrhundert aus Zürcher Sammlungen Kunsthaus Zurich • 1950 p. 23.

1951De Watteau à Cézanne Musée d’Art et d’Histoire • Geneva • 1951 no. 33.

1955Alte Meister aus der Sammlung E. Bührle, Zürich Jegenstorf Castle • Jegenstorf (Bern) • 1955 no. 44.

1990The Passionate Eye, Impressionist and Other Master Paintings from the Collection of Emil G. Bührle, Zurich, Catalogue of the Exhibition in Commemoration of the 100th Birthday of the Collector Emil G. Bührle National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal • Yokohama Museum of Art • Royal Academy of Arts, London • 1990–91 no. 10.

References

1906Jean Martin • Charles Masson «Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné de Jean-Baptiste Greuze» in Camille Mauclair Jean-Baptiste Greuze Paris • 1906 • no. 1201.

1973Leopold Reidemeister etc. Stiftung Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, Fondation Collection Emil G. Bührle, Foundation Emil G. Bührle Collection Zurich & Munich • 1973 • no. 135 (ill.; 21986).

1994Emil Maurer Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle, Zürich  Bern • 1994 • p. 21 (English edition: Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, Bern 1995).

1994Lynn H. Nicholas The Rape of Europa, The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, New York 1994, p. 169.

2005Lukas Gloor • Marco Goldin (ed.) Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, Catalogue vol. 2 • Conegliano & Zurich • 2005 • no. 67 (ill.; German edition: Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle, Zürich, Katalog • Italian edition: Fondazione Collezione E.G. Bührle, Catalogo).

2009Nancy H. Yeide Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Hermann Goering Collection Dallas • 2009 • no. A1257 (ill.).

NoteIn a letter addressed to the Bührle Foundation on 15 September 2003, Professor Steffi Roettgen, Munich, suggested an attribution of the painting to Domenico Corvi (1721–1803). Corvi was active in Rome, and he seems to have shared an apartment with Laurent Pécheux (1729–1821) whilst the latter was spending time in Rome.