Lot 62: FRANÇOIS-GUILLAUME MÉNAGEOT

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, CONNECTICUT LONDON 1744 - 1816 PARIS A LADY, SAID TO BE MADAME DANLOUX, NURSING HER CHILD IN A DRAWING ROOM signed lower left: F Menageot oil on panel 10 1/4 by 7 1/2 in.; 26 by 19 cm.

Paris, Petits Maîtres français du XVIII siècle, 1 - 27 June 1920, no. 85 ("Portrait de Madame Danloux, de passage à Rome").

Le Figaro artistique, 29 November 1923, p. 12, reproduced; Apollo, June 1968, reproduced; The Burlington Magazine, December 1970, reproduced plate XLIX (as dated 1788); Panthéon, May-June 1970, reproduced; N. Willk-Brocard, François-Guillaume Ménageot, Paris 1976, p. 73, cat. no. 23, reproduced fig. 41; N. Willk-Brocard, in The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, Vol. 21, p. 114.

Boulanger; His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 6 February 1889, lot 47; Eugène Féral; Marius Paulme, by 1920; His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 22 November 1923, lot 67, for 36,000 francs to Meyer; Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 22 June 1968, lot 273; With Julius Böhler, Munich, 1970; With W. Katz, by December 1970; Szeben Peto Foundation, London; By whom sold ("The Property of the Szeben Peto Foundation"), London, Christie's, 3 December 1997, lot 55.

In the 1920 Paris exhibition catalogue (see Exhibited), this painting was titled “Portrait de Madame Danloux de passage a Rome,” referring to the wife of the painter Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753-1809) who gave birth to a child in Rome in 1788. The identification of the sitter seems to have been based on the fact that Danloux and his wife knew Ménageot well and that the painting, at one time, apparently bore the date of 1788. This date, however, is no longer visible on the picture. Nicole Willk-Brocard (see Literature) points out that the costume of the sitter is more typical of the period from 1783-86 and that the room depicted is furnished in a French style. This suggests that the picture was painted prior to Ménageot’s departure for Rome and, therefore, makes the sitter’s identification as Madame Danloux doubtful. Whatever the exact subject, this charming painting demonstrates Ménageot's skill in producing small format genre scenes, painted with a smooth porcelain-like quality, reminiscent of the northern schools that were so popular with French collectors.1 1. N. Willlk-Brocard, op. cit., 1976, p. 73.