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The Entombment of Christ
Mathieu Le Nain (French, about 1607–1677)
about 1645
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.3 x 105.1 cm (32 x 41 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of John Goelet in memory of George Peabody Gardner
Accession Number1978.225
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Mathieu Le Nain and his brothers Louis and Antoine are best known for dignified and sympathetic portrayals of peasant life, unprecedented in French art. The quality of those paintings is also found in this religious image with its strong, naturalistic figures and distinctive muted coloring enlivened by areas of red and blue.
ProvenanceMme. Jacques Lenglier (d. by 1788), Paris; March 10, 1788, posthumous Mme. Lenglier sale, Lebrun, Paris, lot 214, sold for 599.19 livres, possibly to Chantreau (dealer), Paris [see note 1]. Vincent Donjeux (dealer; d. by 1793), Paris; April 29, 1793, posthumous Donjeux sale, Lebrun, Paris, lot 309, sold for 191 livres to Dufour. 1802, Ferréol de Bonnemaison (b. 1766 – d. 1826), Paris; July 15, 1802, Bonnemaison sale, Lebrun, Paris, lot 113, withdrawn and probably sold to Alexis Delahante (dealer; b. 1767 – d. 1837), London; June 3, 1814, Delahante sale, Phillips, London, lot 50 for £22.1 to Emmerson [see note 2]. Philippe Panné (dealer; d. by 1819); March 29, 1819, posthumous Panné sale, Christie's, London, lot 24, sold for £17.17 to Dr. Curry, England. 1863, sold by John Knapp, Balcombe Place, near Bradford, England to William Rhodes for £6.10 [see note 3]; by descent to his grandson, Captain R. H. Rhodes and his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Rhodes, Saint Bride's Farm, Hampshire, England; July 15, 1960, posthumous Mrs. Rhodes sale, Christie's, London, lot 37, sold for £64.84 to R. Munns. By 1977, John Goelet, New York; 1978, gift of Goelet to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 13, 1978)
NOTES:
[1] Information about the eighteenth-century sales is taken from the Getty Provenance Index online. That the buyer in 1788 was Chantreau is according to Les frères Le Nain (exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, October 3, 1978 – January 8, 1979), p. 282, cat. no. 59; this information is not corroborated by the Getty Provenance Index. Vincent Donjeaux and Jacques Lenglier were among a close-knit network of dealers in Paris who frequently attended the sales held by their colleagues. For further, see Charlotte Guichard, “Small Worlds: The Auction Economy in the Late Eighteenth-Century Paris Art Market,” in Moving Pictures: Intra-European Trade in Images, 16th-18th Centuries, ed. N. De Marchi and S. Raux (Turnhout, 2014), pp. 237-256.
[2] Information about the nineteenth-century sales is likewise taken from the Getty Provenance Index online. Ferréol de Bonnemaison was related to Alexis Delahante, who worked with him and on his behalf.
[3] According to information in the 1963 Christie’s sale catalogue. The sale price is given in Les frères Le Nain (as above, n. 1).
NOTES:
[1] Information about the eighteenth-century sales is taken from the Getty Provenance Index online. That the buyer in 1788 was Chantreau is according to Les frères Le Nain (exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, October 3, 1978 – January 8, 1979), p. 282, cat. no. 59; this information is not corroborated by the Getty Provenance Index. Vincent Donjeaux and Jacques Lenglier were among a close-knit network of dealers in Paris who frequently attended the sales held by their colleagues. For further, see Charlotte Guichard, “Small Worlds: The Auction Economy in the Late Eighteenth-Century Paris Art Market,” in Moving Pictures: Intra-European Trade in Images, 16th-18th Centuries, ed. N. De Marchi and S. Raux (Turnhout, 2014), pp. 237-256.
[2] Information about the nineteenth-century sales is likewise taken from the Getty Provenance Index online. Ferréol de Bonnemaison was related to Alexis Delahante, who worked with him and on his behalf.
[3] According to information in the 1963 Christie’s sale catalogue. The sale price is given in Les frères Le Nain (as above, n. 1).