|
Claude Monet (artist) French, 1840 - 1926 The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874 oil on canvas Overall: 60 x 79.7 cm (23 5/8 x 31 3/8 in.) framed: 78.1 x 97.8 x 4.7 cm (30 3/4 x 38 1/2 x 1 7/8 in.) Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon 1983.1.24 On View |
Provenance
(Durand-Ruel, Paris); sold 1890 to Henri Vever [1854-1943], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-2 February 1897, no. 78); purchased by (Georges Petit) for Marie-Albert, vicomte de Curel [1827-1908], Paris;[1] by descent in his family; (de Curel sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 21 June 1961, lot C);[2] purchased by (Hector Brame, Paris) for Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.
[1] See reports of the Vever sale published in the Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot no. 35-36, 4-5 February 1897 and the Chroniques des Arts et de la Curiosité, as well as the annotated sale catalogue, copies in NGA curatorial files. The NGA picture was not included in the 25 November 1918 Curel estate sale held at the Galerie Georges Petit (originally scheduled for 3 May 1918). The vicomte de Curel, for whom the painting was purchased, has been identified by François Auffret, Président of La Société des Amis de Jongkind in Paris (founded 1970), with confirmation from the collector's descendants. With M. Auffret's kind permission, his research was shared with the NGA by Dr. Diana Kostyrko (see her e-mails from October through December 2008 in NGA curatorial files).
[2] According to press coverage of the 1961 sale, the picture had been in the collection of Barbara Church, an American collector who lived in Ville-d'Avray and had died the preceding year. However, the sale in which the NGA painting figured actually consisted of six pictures from the de Curel collection; the Barbara Church sale, held the same day at the Palais Galliera, was one of several estate sales of the Church collection held in 1961.