Orléans collection

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Diana and Callisto , Titian, 1556–1559, Scottish National Gallery , Edinburgh
Diana and Actaeon , Titian, 1556-5159, Scottish National Gallery , Edinburgh

The Orléans Collection was one of the most important collections of paintings of the 18th century. Her around 500 paintings, including in particular major works of the Italian school, were collected in Paris by Philippe II. De Bourbon, duc d'Orléans , between 1715 and his death in 1723. In addition to the princely collections of paintings such as those formed in Dresden , Madrid or Stockholm , it is considered one of the most important collections of European painting.

Collection history

Previous collections in Prague, Stockholm and Rome

A core of the Orléans collection is a bundle of paintings from the Rudolf II collection . His collection at Prague Castle included works that the minister of his great-uncle Charles V , Cardinal Granvelle , had already collected in the course of the 16th century, or which Charles V had been given as a gift by other princes such as the Gonzaga in Mantua.

Parts of the Rudolf II collection were spoiled by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War when they occupied Prague in 1648. Together with pictures stolen by the Swedes in Munich in 1632, they formed a basic part of the collection that was later consolidated in Stockholm. From this, Christina von Sweden took 70 to 80 paintings and other art objects, including around 50 pictures by Italian masters, statues and tapestries , when she left Sweden after her abdication in 1654 and finally settled in Rome in 1655 after her conversion to Catholicism. In Rome, Christina of Sweden added further masterpieces to the collection, such as pictures from the predella of the altarpiece created by Raphael for the Colonna family (1504–1505, Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York). She also received pictures as gifts from other Catholic regents and gave pictures of her own. Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria had her Titian's death of Actaion (1559–1575, National Gallery , London) delivered. Christina in turn presented Philip IV to Albrecht Dürer's tablets Adam and Eve (1507, Museo del Prado , Madrid). After her death in 1689, her heir and administrator, Cardinal Azzolini, took over the collection, but the latter also died within six weeks. His nephew, the Marchese Pompeo Azzolini, inherited the collection and then sold it to Don Livio Odescalchi . At that time it contained 275 paintings, 140 of which were attributed to Italian masters. After his death in 1713, his heirs, Marchese Baldassare Odescalchi and Cardinal Erba Odescalchi, entered into negotiations with Pierre Crozat , who acted as negotiator for Philippe II de Bourbon. The deal was decided with the handover of the works in 1721, whereby the French dealers criticized the fact that Queen Christina had cut the edges of the paintings.

The Awakening of Lazarus , Sebastiano del Piombo, 1516–1518, National Gallery , London

The collection in Paris

Philippe II. De Bourbon began collecting paintings intensively from around 1715 and in the process also acquired the pictures of Christina of Sweden. In 1715, at the death of Louis XIV , Philippe became regent for the minor Louis XV. until he ascended the throne in 1723. During these phases, not only did important purchases for the painting collection take place, but Philip was also given important works as a regent. He received three works from Titian's poetry series from Philip V of Spain .

After the purchase, the Queen Christina's collection was shown in Paris in the Palais Royal . The works were located there in two room sequences in the western wing of the complex, which Philip II's father, Philippe I of Orléans , had used as reception rooms. A catalog of the works exhibited in the Palais Royal in 1727 shows that there were only fifteen pictures inherited from Philippe I, while the majority of the total of 495 paintings went back to Philippe II's collection activities. During the 18th century, the collection in the Palais Royal was not reserved for the royal family but was open to a wider audience. The popularity of the collection and its works was further increased by the fact that in addition to the catalog from 1785 the most important works were distributed in a series of 352 graphics. These were traded on a subscription basis . The series was interrupted during the French Revolution and completed in 1808.

Other acquisitions by Philippe II included paintings such as Sebastiano del Piombo's Awakening of Lazarus (1516–1518, National Gallery, London) or Nicolas Poussin's The Seven Sacraments (2nd series 1644–1648, Scottish National Gallery , Edinburgh). Philippe II acquired works from the collections of the heirs of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin , from Cardinal Dubois and from the collections of other important French nobles such as the Dukes of Noailles , Gramont and Vendôme .

The Orléans Collection was linked to other famous collections through the purchase and inheritance of paintings. Philippe II acquired works that other French dealers had acquired in 1650 in the “Sale of the Late King's Goods” after the execution of Charles I of England . As a result, works from this collection were transferred to the collection in the Palais Royal, which Charles I had acquired from the Gonzagas collections in Mantua. In the possession of Philippe II, for example, was Giulio Romano's painting The young Jupiter guarded by the corybants on the island of Crete (approx. 1553, National Gallery, London), which was previously in Charles I's inventory in 1637 and was previously in Mantua is. Works from his collection also came into the possession of Philippe II through Karl I's widow, Henrietta Maria , who had been living in exile in France since 1665 , and through his father's first wife, Charles I's daughter, Henrietta Anne Stuart .

The Mill , Rembrandt, 1645-4168, National Gallery of Art , Washington

The collection was particularly distinguished by its works from the Italian Renaissance . She owned five of the poesies by Titian originally painted for Philip II of Spain , four mythological images and four allegories of love by Paolo Veronese . In total, the collection comprised 28 pictures attributed to Titian, 12 works by Raphael, 16 paintings by Guido Reni , 16 by Paolo Veronese, 12 by Jacopo Tintoretto , 25 by Annibale Carracci , 7 by Lodovico Carracci , 3 by Correggio and 3 by Caravaggio . In addition to the focus on Italian painting, the Orléans collection also contained works by French, Flemish and Dutch painters, and this selection reflects the preferences of European collectors in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Among other things, the collection contained the Seven Sacraments of Poussin as well as works by Philippe de Champaigne and Eustache Le Sueur . The Flemish collection was dominated by Rubens with 19 pieces, van Dyck with 10 and David Teniers the Elder. J. with 9 works. Among the Dutch paintings in the collection there were 6 pictures by Rembrandt , 7 by Caspar Netscher , 3 by Frans van Mieris the Elder. Ä. , 3 from Gerard Dou and 4 from Philips Wouwerman . As far as we know today, not all of these attributions are tenable, but despite some write-offs the collection contained a number of masterpieces of European painting.

Philip II's son, Louis I de Bourbon , did not share his father's love of art without reservations and probably damaged Correggio's erotic-mythological painting Leda and the Swan (approx. 1532, Gemäldegalerie , Berlin) out of religious fervor . The chain of provenance of this picture exemplifies the migration of some works before they entered the Orléans collection and after they left it again. Correggio's work came to the court of Charles V as a gift from the Gonzagas from Mantua and from there to the Rudolf II collection in Prague. From there it was brought to Stockholm by the Swedish troops, only to be taken to Rome by Queen Christina. From there, Philippe II bought it for the collection in the Palais Royal in Paris, and from here the picture was finally sold to Frederick II of Prussia .

Dispersal of the collection in London

The great-great-grandson of Philippe II, Philippe Égalité , probably due to a lack of money, negotiated in 1788 with a consortium led by James Christie, the founder of the auction house of the same name , for the sale of the Orléans collection. He had previously sold his collection of gems and cameos to Catherine II of Russia in 1787 . Negotiations came to an agreement to hand over the works for 100,000 guineas . However, James Christie could not raise the necessary sum.

In 1792 Louis-Philippe II sold 147 works of the German, Dutch and Flemish schools to a syndicate led by the London dealer Thomas Moore Slade and George Kinnaird, 7th Lord Kinnaird. This sale aroused criticism from French artists and the debtors of Louis-Philippe II, so that the buyers felt it was safer not to transport the paintings by land to Calais, but by ship over the Seine from Paris. In London, in April 1793, the works were shown to the public in Pall Mall No. 125 against payment and passed on to various buyers.

Also in 1792, before he was arrested and executed in November of the same year, Louis-Philippe II entered into negotiations about the sale of paintings by Italian and French masters. For 750,000 livres these were finally given to Édouard Walkiers, a banker in Brussels, who immediately sold the works on to his cousin, the Parisian collector Jean-Joseph de Laborde in Paris. He brought the collection to London in the spring of 1793.

The Mockery , Paolo Veronese, circa 1575, National Gallery of Art, London

In London, the 305 paintings remained in the Laborde collection for five years. During this time George III tried . with the support of Prime Minister William Pitt in vain to acquire the pictures for Great Britain. Only the London buyers consortium of Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater , his nephew and heir, Earl Gower , and Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, succeeded in acquiring the pictures in 1798. Five eighths of the Duke of Bridgewater, one quarter of the Earl of Carslisle and one eighth of the Earl Gower raised the purchase price of 43,500 pounds . Buyers exhibited the acquired paintings in galleries on Pall Mall and the beach for seven months in 1798 . Auctions took place in 1798, 1800 and 1802. However, the consortium kept 94 works that were not sold in the galleries or at the auctions. The highest quality works belonged to this small group, which is why their value represented more than half of the total value of the lot. The sales totaled £ 42,500, with which the dealers had almost offset their expenses and got hold of the remaining paintings very cheaply.

Among the buyers of the works are aristocrats like John Bligh, 4th Earl of Darnley, Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood, or William FitzWilliam, 4th Earl FitzWilliam, whose collection later formed the basis of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Dealers and bankers such as Thomas Hope and John Julius Angerstein, whose works formed the starting point for the National Gallery in London, also acquired paintings. In addition, there are professional art dealers such as Michael Bryan, painters such as Richard Cosway, and art connoisseurs such as William Beckford or Samuel Rogers as buyers .

The paintings owned by Frederick Howard are kept at the Earls of Carslisle's residence, Castle Howard , but the collection has been reduced through sales, gifts and fires. After the death of Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, in 1803, Earl Gower, now Marquess of Stafford, inherited his share of the works. Together with more than 250 other paintings, he exhibited the 47 paintings that had come into his possession from 1806 in his London residence, Cleveland House. This Stafford Gallery was moved to the newly built Bridgewater House in 1854 by his son, Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere .

At the beginning of the Second World War , the collection in Bridgewater House was brought to Scotland. Since 1946 there have been 26 paintings, including 16 paintings from the Orléans collection, in the Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland ) in Edinburgh. This makes the Sutherland Loan or Bridgewater Loan the most extensive successor collections preserved as a bundle. In 2008, the previous owner of the paintings, Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland, announced that he wanted to sell two Titians from the collection to the museum. In the spring of 2009, the Scottish National Gallery and the National Gallery in London announced that they had acquired Titian's paintings Diana and Actaion for £ 50 million. In 2012 the Duke of Sutherland sold Titian's work Diana and Callisto for £ 45 million, and the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh and the National Gallery in London became joint owners.

literature

  • Hugh Brigstocke: Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland , 2nd edition, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, ISBN 0-903598-22-1 .
  • William Buchanan: Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures of Great Masters into England by the Great Artists since the French Revolution , Ackermann, London 1824.
  • Cecil Gould: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools , National Gallery Catalogs, London 1975, ISBN 0-947645-22-5 .
  • Christopher Lloyd: The Queen's Pictures, Royal Collectors Through the Centuries , National Gallery Publications, London 1991, ISBN 0-947645-88-8 .
  • Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, ISBN 1-85709-913-3 .
  • Gerald Reitlinger: The Economics of Taste. Volume I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760-1960 , Barrie and Rockliffe, London 1961.
  • Hugh Trevor-Roper : Princes and Artists, Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517-1633 , new edition, Thames & Hudson, London 1991, ISBN 0-500-27623-4 .
  • Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Hutchinson, London 1990, ISBN 0-09-174637-X .

Web links

  • Buchanan, William: Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures of Great Masters into England by the Great Artists since the French Revolution , Ackermann, London 1824. The first 200 pages of the first volume deal with the sale of the collection Orléans in London with lists of works and buyers. Available online at Google Books , accessed March 17, 2011
  • The Bridgewater Syndicate , a collection of websites from the National Gallery in London relating to the Duke of Bridgewater's consortium of buyers, accessed on March 17, 2011
  • Lecture manuscript by Susanna Avery-Quash, Research Curator at the National Gallery in London on December 9, 2009, accessed on March 17, 2011

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Louis-François Dubois de Saint-Gelais: Description of the tableaux du Palais Royal avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages , 1727 Geneva. Information on all works can be found in the Getty Provenance Index (note: search for “Orleans” under “Archival Documents”), accessed on March 2, 2011.
  2. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 461.
  3. ^ Hugh Trevor-Roper: Princes and Artists, Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517-1633 , Thames & Hudson, London 1976, p. 112. A work that can be shown to be found in all collections of the provenance chain from Cardinal Granvelle to the National Gallery takes place in London is Corregio's work Venus with Mercury and Cupid (The School of Love) , around 1525 (inventory number: NG10).
  4. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 463.
  5. ↑ Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, pp. 127–129.
  6. ↑ Inventory number: 16.30ab. See Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, pp. 127-129. The pictures of the predella are today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, ( Christ on the Mount of Olives ; inventory number: 32.130.1), in the National Gallery in London ( Procession to Calvary ; inventory number: NG2919) and in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London ( St. Anthony of Padua , inventory number: DPG243; St. Francis of Assisi ; inventory number: DPG241) and kept in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston ( Pietà ; inventory number: P16e3).
  7. ↑ Inventory number: NG6420 Cf. Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 255. The painting is still in David Tenier's picture Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his gallery in Brussels (approx. 1651, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna ) as part of the collection of the Archduke to see.
  8. ↑ Inventory numbers: P02177 or P02178
  9. ↑ Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, p. 170.
  10. ↑ Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, pp. 196–197.
  11. ^ Hugh Brigstocke: Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland , 2nd edition, National Galleries of Scotland, 1993 Edinburgh, p. 181. Specifically, these were the pictures Diana and Callisto (1556–1559, Scottish National, now preserved in Edinburgh Gallery, Edinburgh, inventory number: NGL 059.46) and Diana and Aktaion (1556–1559, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, inventory number: NG 2839) and the Robbery of Europe (1560–1562, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, inventory number: P26e1) .
  12. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540–1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 464.
  13. ^ Louis-François Dubois de Saint-Gelais: Description of the tableaux du Palais Royal avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages , 1727 Paris. See Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, pp. 185-186. The Duke also received works from the estate of his father's lover, the Chevalier de Lorraine. In total, Philippe is said to have inherited more than 550 paintings (including miniatures ).
  14. ^ Robert W. Berger: Public Access to Art in Paris , The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1999, pp. 201-208.
  15. ↑ Galerie du Palais royal, gravée d'après les Tableaux des differentes Ecoles qui la composent: avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres & une description historique de chaque tableau, par Mr. l'abbé de Fontenai Dediée à SAS Monseigneur le duc d 'Orléans, premier prince du sang, par J. Couché , 3 volumes, Jacques Couché, Paris 1786–1808. The copies were a mixture of engraving and etching . See Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, pp. 466-467.
  16. ↑ Inventory number: NG1
  17. ↑ The Sacrament of the Last Unction , Inventory Number: NGL 067.46 G, The Sacrament of Confirmation , Inventory Number: NGL 067.46 B, The Sacrament of Baptism , Inventory Number: NGL 067.46 A, The Sacrament of Marriage , Inventory Number: NGL 067.46 C, The Sacrament of Confession , Inventory number: NGL 067.46 D, The Sacrament of Institution, inventory number: NGL 067.46 E, The Sacrament of the Last Supper , inventory number: NGL 067.46 F. Cf. Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540–1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 462.
  18. ^ William Buchanan: Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures of Great Masters into England by the Great Artists since the French Revolution , Vol. 1, Ackermann, London 1824, p. 14.
  19. ↑ Inventory number: NG624; See Cecil Gould: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools , National Gallery Catalogs, London 1975, p. 119.
  20. ^ Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, p. 186.
  21. ↑ In detail these are: Diana and Actaion (Tizian, 1556–1559, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, inventory number: NG 2839), Diana and Callisto (Tizian, 1556–1559, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, inventory number: NGL 059.46), Robbery of Europe (Titian, 1560–1562, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, inventory number: P26e1), Death of the Actaion (Titian 1559–1570, National Gallery, London, inventory number: NG6420), Perseus and Andromeda (Titian, 1554–1556 , Wallace Collection , London, inventory number: P11); Hermes, Herse and Aglauros (Paolo Veronese, 1576–1584, Fitzwilliam Museum , Cambridge, inventory number: 143), The choice between virtue and vice (Paolo Veronese, 1580, Frick Collection , New York, inventory number: 1912.1.129), Wisdom and Love (Paolo Veronese, 1580, Frick Collection, New York, inventory number: 1912.1.128), Mars and Venus united by love (Paolo Veronese, 1570s, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inventory number: 10.189), Infidelity , The Mockery , The Respect and the Happy Covenant (Paolo Veronese, ca.1575, National Gallery, London, inventory numbers: NG1318, NG1324, NG1325, NG1326).
  22. ^ William Buchanan: Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures of Great Masters into England by the Great Artists since the French Revolution , Vol. 1, Ackermann, London 1824, pp. 167–9, 182–4 and 189ff.
  23. ↑ Inventory number: 218
  24. ↑ Gerald Reitlinger: The Economics of Taste. Volume I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760–1960 , Barrie and Rockliffe, London 1961, p. 7.
  25. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 466.
  26. ^ William T. Whitley, Artists and Their Friends in England 1700-1799 , Volume 2, London 1928, pp. 179-180.
  27. ^ William Buchanan: Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures of Great Masters into England by the Great Artists since the French Revolution , Volume 1, Ackermann, London 1824, p. 159.
  28. ↑ Peter Watson: Wisdom and Strength, the Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece , Vintage, New York 1990, pp. 241-244.
  29. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, pp. 466-467.
  30. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 467.
  31. ↑ Gerald Reitlinger: The Economics of Taste. Volume I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760-1960 , Barrie and Rockliffe, London 1961, p. 30
  32. ^ Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008, p. 468.
  33. ↑ Trustees of the National Gallery of Scotland, A Companion Guide to the National Gallery of Scotland , National Galleries of Scotland Publications, Edinburgh 2000, pp. 32–35.
  34. ↑ Penny (2007, p. 461) speaks of 25 paintings in the National Gallery in London that go back to the Orléans collection. See Nicholas Penny: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 , National Gallery Publications, London 2008.
  35. ↑ Website of the National Galleries of Scotland on the Bridgewater Collection ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 19, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalgalleries.org
  36. ↑ Pauline McLean: Titian masterpiece Diana and Callisto saved for nation , BBC online article of March 7, 2012 (accessed August 25, 2019)