The Marriage Contract

Thomas Rowlandson (English, 1756–1827)

Medium/TechniquePen and black and brown ink and watercolor over graphite

DimensionsSheet: 43.5 x 52.5 cm (17 1/8 x 20 11/16 in.)

Credit LineGift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Accession number2015.45

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDrawings

Collections

ProvenanceBy 1903, Nathaniel von Rothschild (b. 1836 - d. 1905), Vienna [see note 1]; by descent to his nephew, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (no. AR 762) [see note 2]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; by September 25, 1942, selected for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 3]; removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster (KG 232) and subsequently to Alt Aussee; 1945, recovered by Allied forces; October 16, 1947, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 4]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2015, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 25, 2015)

NOTES:
[1] Nathaniel Rothschild, Notizen über einige meiner Kunstgegenstände (Vienna, 1903), p. 15, cat. no. 25; and Inventar über die in den Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'schen Nachlass gehörigen, in dem Palais in Wien, IV. Bezirk, Theresianumgasse Nr. 14 befindlichen Kunstgegenstände und Einrichtungsstücke (Vienna, 1906), p. 403, nos. 179/180.

[2] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This drawing appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 762: "Rowlandson. Dame mit zwei Herren und Hund. Getuschte Federzeichnung." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1029.

[3] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection, and this drawing was selected for inclusion by 1942. Card no. AR 762, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online.

[4] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter. The date of return is noted on the Central Depot card.