Presumed Portrait of Chevalier de Damery

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805)

about 1765

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions65.1 x 55.2 cm (25 5/8 x 21 3/4 in.)

Credit LineCharles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund

Accession number1982.140

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

The sitter for this portrait is believed to be the Chevalier de Damery, who was an officer in the French Guard and a patron and close friend of Greuze. The carefully detailed military decorations on the gentleman's jacket indicate that he had received the Ordre de Saint-Louis. This portrait demonstrates the artist's expertise in rendering the textures of lavish materials-gold brocade, delicate lace, and sumptuous velvet-without drawing attention away from the sitter's expressive face.

Provenance1866, Symphorien Boittelle (b. 1813 - d. 1897), Paris; April 24-25, 1866, Boittelle sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 61, sold for fr. 2950 to Boiset [see note 1]. Mathilde Bonaparte, Princesse Francaise (b. 1820 - d. 1904), Paris; May 17-21, 1904, posthumous Princesse Mathilde sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 34, probably bought in and sold to Goupil et Cie., Paris (stock no. 28238) [see note 2]; October 6, 1904, sold by Goupil to Eugene Glaenzer and Co., New York; probably sold by Glaenzer to John Stanley Ames (b. 1878 - d. 1959), Boston [see note 3]; by descent to his children, David Ames (b. 1912 - d. 1991), Oliver F. Ames (b. 1920 - d. 2007), and Rebecca Caroline Ames (Mrs. Peter S.) Thompson (b. 1916 - d. 1987), Boston; 1982, sold by David Ames, Oliver Ames, and Mrs. Thompson to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 10, 1982)

NOTES:
[1] As "Portrait d'un grand Seigneur." [2] As "Portrait d'un chevalier de St. Louis." Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records (stock book 15, no. 28238, p. 123). The stock book entry indicates the painting was purchased from Chevallier, the commissaire-priseur of the Princess Mathilde sale, on May 26, 1904. [3] Dealer Eugene Glaenzer, who had been head of the gallery Boussod, Valadon et Cie., New York, worked with John S. Ames's parents, Frederick Lothrop Ames and Rebecca Caroline Blair, in decorating their Boston home. See Christopher Carlsmith, "A Venetian Doge in a Yankee Court: Benjamin-Constant’s Murals of Venice and Byzantium in the Ames-Webster House, Boston," 19th Century Art Worldwide (online; http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn15/carlsmith-on-benjamin-constant-murals-of-venice-and-byzantium).