Luncheon Party in a Park

Nicolas Lancret (French, 1690–1743)

about 1735

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions54.1 x 46 cm (21 5/16 x 18 1/8 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Forsyth Wickes—The Forsyth Wickes Collection

Accession number65.2649

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceBy 1756, Ange-Laurent de la Live de Jully (b. 1725 - d. 1770), Paris [see note 1]; May 2, 1770, La Live de Jully sale, Paris, lot 79, sold for 202 livres to Sevin [see note 2]. 1790, Pierre-Louis Eveillard, Marquis de Livois (b. 1736 - d. 1790), Angers; July 23, 1799, posthumous Livois sale, Paris, lot 192. 1925, M. le Marquis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers, Paris [see note 3]. By 1927, David David-Weill (b. 1871 - d. 1952), Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, France [see note 4]; 1937, sold by David-Weill to Wildenstein and Company, New York [see note 5]. By 1945, Jacques Helft Gallery, New York; February 1, 1945, sold by Jacques Helft to Forsyth Wickes (b. 1876 - d. 1964), New York and Newport, RI; 1965, bequest of Forsyth Wickes to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 8, 1969)

NOTES:
[1] In 1756, the painting was engraved by P. E. Moitte, who dedicated his work to La Live de Jully. The painting is also included in La Live de Jully's collection catalogue of 1764; see Colin B. Bailey, "Ange-Laurent de la Live de Jully: A Facsimile Reprint of the Catalogue Historique (1764) and the Catalogue Raisonné des Tableaux (March 5, 1770)" (New York, 1988), p. 37. It is a replica of a larger painting by Lancret, "Luncheon with Ham" (Chantilly, Musée Condé), commissioned by King Louis XV in 1735. It has been suggested that La Live de Jully commissioned the MFA painting, but given its approximate date this is not likely, as he was only ten years old in 1735.

[2] Getty Provenance Index, Sale Catalogue F-A233, lot 79.

[3] He lent the painting to the "Exposition du Paysage Français de Poussin à Corot," Palais de Beaux-Arts, Paris, May-June, 1925, cat. no. 162.

[4] See Gabriel Henriot, Collection David-Weill, volume 1, Peintures (Paris, 1927), part 2, pp. 223-225.

[5] "Sale of the David-Weill Collection," Art News, February 27, 1937, p. 12 and "David-Weill Pictures Come to New York," Art Digest, vol. 12, no. 3 (November 1, 1937), p. 13.