Landscape

Henry D. Williams

Curwen Eliot Hodgkin (1905-1987), London, England [1]

- still in 1941
Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1941), Boston, MA, USA; Isabella Macomber Lyman, Dover, MA, by bequest [2]

- 1944
E. Leroy & Co., Paris, France

1944/05/04
In auction, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, NY, May 4, 1944, lot no. 21 [3]

- 1946
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY, USA

1946 - 1957
J. Lionberger Davis, St. Louis, MO, purchased from M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. [4]

1957 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by J. Lionberger Davis [5]


Notes:
The main source for this provenance is the 1999 catalogue raisonné on the artist by Michel Schulman [Schulman, Michel. "Théodore Rousseau 1812-1867: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint." Paris: Les éditions de l'Amateur, 1999, cat. 225]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[1] The only source which includes Hodgkin within the provenance for this painting is the catalogue raisonné. Another painting by Rousseau owned by the Museum (170:1966), also includes Hodgkin within the provenance. Eliot Hodgkin was a painter and art collector who was primarily interested in eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings and drawings [Ford, Brinsley. "Eliot Hodgkin 1905-1987, Painter & Collector." London: Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, 1990].

[2] An information sheet of works on loan to the Museum by J. Lionberger Davis, dated April 11, 1952, includes this painting, along with some provenance information [SLAM document files]. Henry D. Williams is listed, along with the late Frank Gair Macomber, who bequeathed the work to his daughter, Mrs. Charles F. Lyman (Isabella Macomber Lyman). The collector, Frank Gair Macomber, is included within the provenance for this painting in the catalogue raisonné, but his daughter is not listed. Frank Gair Macomber was an insurance executive and art collector who held the position of honorary curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as early as 1910 [Whitehill, Walter Muir. "Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Centennial History." Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970; "Frank Gair Macomber" (obituary). "New York Times," December 19, 1941, p. 25].

[3] The painting was put up for auction in May 1944, listed as from E. Leroy & Co., Paris, but no further provenance information is included in the catalogue ["Valuable Paintings by Modern French, American and Barbizon Artists and Old Masters." New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., May 4, 1944, lot no. 21]. E. Leroy & Co. does not appear in the catalogue raisonné entry for this painting.

[4] The information sheet of loans to the Museum provided by J. Lionberger Davis (see note [2]) indicates that he purchased this work from M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. on December 28, 1946.

[5] This painting was on loan to the Museum for some time before it was acquired by the Museum as a gift from J. Lionberger Davis in December 1957 [loan lists, SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control and the Advisory Committee of the City Art Museum, December 12, 1957.