{
"data": {
"id": 140342,
"accession_number": "1964.292",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mme. Dufresne, c. 1816. Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758\u20131823). Oil on paper mounted on fabric; framed: 34.5 x 27 x 5 cm (13 9/16 x 10 5/8 x 1 15/16 in.); unframed: 23.8 x 17.5 cm (9 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Collection, 1964.292",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mme. Dufresne",
"creation_date": "c. 1816",
"creation_date_earliest": 1811,
"creation_date_latest": 1821,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "oil on paper mounted on fabric",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 34.5 x 27 x 5 cm (13 9/16 x 10 5/8 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 23.8 x 17.5 cm (9 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.345,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.27,
"width_inch": 10,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"depth": 0.05,
"depth_inch": 1,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.9375
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.238,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.175,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Inscription on face of frame: prud'hon. portrait de mme dufresne\r\n\r\n\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310300,
"title": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection",
"description": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-07-05T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 206263,
"title": "Pierre Paul Prud'hon",
"description": "Pierre Paul Prud'hon. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-June 8, 1998).",
"opening_date": "1997-09-23T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Paris, \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts. Exposition des oeuvres de Prud'hon (1874), no. 11, Portrait de Mme Dufresne, femme d'un marchand de tableaux, appartient \u00e0 M. Jeanne-Deslandes.",
"opening_date": null
},
{
"description": "Paris, \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts. Exposition de tableaux de ma\u00eetres anciens au profit des inond\u00e9s du Midi (1887), no. 119, Portrait de jeune femme, appartient \u00e0 Henri Rochefort.",
"opening_date": null
},
{
"description": "Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts. Exposition P.-P. Prud'hon (1922), no. 65, Portrait de Mme Dufresne, collection de David Weill.",
"opening_date": "1922-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "New York, Wildenstein & Co. David-Weill Pictures (1937), no. 44, Mme Dufrene [sic].",
"opening_date": "1937-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA. Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection (1990), no. 220.",
"opening_date": "1990-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Paris, Grand Palais; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prud'hon ou le r\u00eave du bonheur (1997-98), 281-83 (repr.). Text by Sylvain Laveissi\u00e8re (French and English eds.)",
"opening_date": "1997-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Studio of the artist",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"On February 11, 1823, five days before his death, Prud'hon bequeathed to Boisfremont, his friend and student, \u201ctous [ses] portefeuilles de dessins, \u00e9tudes, etc.\u201d The CMA painting was likely among these works, as it does not appear in the artist\u2019s estate sale, held on May 13, 1823, from which Boisfremont purchased a number of works.
"
],
"date": "c. 1816 - 1823",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Charles Boulanger de Boisfremont [1773-1838], probably bequeathed to his daughter, Henri Power",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"When Boisfremont died in 1838, he bequeathed his portfolios of works by Prud'hon to his daughter, Madame Henri Power (n\u00e9e de Boisfremont), and on the occasion of her death in 1864, the Boisfremont collection of drawings and sketches by Prud'hon was sold at auction. Research is ongoing into whether the sale contains the Cleveland painting. The heirs of Prud'hon claimed that the objects in this sale were rightfully theirs. In May of 1868, the Tribunal civil de la Seine (1er chamber) ruled in favor of Boisfremont\u2019s son (Power\u2019s brother), saying that the Prud'hon heirs could not establish that their father had renounced the bequest and that there was no reason to conclude that Boisfremont had unlawfully appropriated the objects in dispute. The works for sale in the 1870 auction are those that had been bequeathed to Power, now belonging to Boisfremont\u2019s son in accordance with his father\u2019s estate.
"
],
"date": "Probably 1823 - 1838",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Probably Henri Power [d. 1864], probably to Charles Boulanger de Boisfremont fils",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Probably 1838 - 1864",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Probably Charles Boulanger de Boisfremont fils",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Probably 1864 - 1870",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Boisfremont fils sale, H\u00f4tel Drouot, Paris, April 9, 1870, no. 8, sold to Monsieur de Norzy)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1870",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Monsieur de Norzy",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Goncourt records in 1876 that Monsieur de Norzy purchased the Prud'hon at the Boisfremont sale for ff 310. It does not appear to have been sold in the sale of de Norzy\u2019s collection on May 20, 1873: while the sale includes several drawings formerly in the Boisfremont collection depicting the Empress Josephine \u2013 the Cleveland picture has been connected to sketches of the Empress \u2013 none are oil sketches.
"
],
"date": "1870 - by 1874",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "M. Jeanne-Deslandes",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Goncourt\u2019s 1876 Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9 de l\u2019oeuvre\u2026de P.P. Prud'hon situates the painting at the time with M. Jeanne Deslandes, while the 1874 Exposition des oeuvres de Prud'hon records the current owner as M. Jeanne-Deslandes. Hippolyte Fontaine\u2019s Electric Lighting: A Practical Treatise of 1878 discusses a \u201cM. Jeanne Deslandes,\u201d a contractor involved in the enlargement of the port at Havre. There also appears to have been a Jean Deslandes. Thus, the exact name of the owner is unclear.
"
],
"date": "By 1874",
"sortorder": 7
},
{
"description": "(Sale, H\u00f4tel Drouot, Paris, April 24, 1886, no. 52)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1886",
"sortorder": 8
},
{
"description": "Collection Henri Rochefort [1831-1913], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "By 1887",
"sortorder": 9
},
{
"description": "Paul-Arthur Ch\u00e9ramy [1840-1912], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Until 1908",
"sortorder": 10
},
{
"description": "(Ch\u00e9ramy sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 5-7, 1908, no. 95, bought in)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"The Prud'hon failed to sell in this auction and was included in Ch\u00e9ramy\u2019s estate sale five years later.
"
],
"date": "1908",
"sortorder": 11
},
{
"description": "Probably Paul-Arthur Ch\u00e9ramy [1840-1912], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1908-1912",
"sortorder": 12
},
{
"description": "(Ch\u00e9ramy estate sale, H\u00f4tel Drouot, Paris, April 14-16, 1913, no. 391, sold to Jacob)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1913",
"sortorder": 13
},
{
"description": "Jacob",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"\u201cJacob,\u201d a dealer or collector of unknown identity, is written in as the buyer in H\u00f4tel Drouot\u2019s annotated copy of the Ch\u00e9ramy estate catalogue.
"
],
"date": "1913-",
"sortorder": 14
},
{
"description": "David David-Weill [1871-1952], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"David-Weill certainly had the painting from 1922 until 1937, as he is listed as the lender of the painting to several exhibitions within that period. His ownership is confirmed by a label on the painting\u2019s stretcher.
"
],
"date": "By 1922 - at least 1937",
"sortorder": 15
},
{
"description": "Irwin Laughlin [1871-1941], Washington, D.C.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Probably until 1941",
"sortorder": 16
},
{
"description": "(Laughlin sale, Sotheby's, London, June 10, 1959, lot 123, possibly sold to Betts on behalf of Clifford Duits)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1959",
"sortorder": 17
},
{
"description": "Severance A. [1895-1989] and Greta Millikin [1903-1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"The Duits records at the Getty Research Institute show that Duits acquired the Prud'hon on June 10, 1959 \u2013 the date of the Laughlin sale. While several past owners are listed (Weill, Deslandes), the seller/consignor to Duits is not recorded. However, in the price list accompanying the Laughlin sale catalogue, \u201cBetts\u201d is listed as the buyer. In the case of at least one other provenance (a Boucher painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1965-85-1), \u201cBetts\u201d appears to have purchased a painting at a Sotheby\u2019s sale, and the painting was in Duits\u2019 stock within that same year, so it is certainly possible that Betts was buying on behalf of Duits. \u201cBetts\u201d may refer to Anthony J. Betts, a professor and collector who made numerous purchases at auction in the 1950s and 1960s.
"
],
"date": "1963-1964",
"sortorder": 18
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1964-",
"sortorder": 19
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The artist made this sketch in preparation for a full-length portrait of Madame Dufresne that is now lost. Prud'hon showed the sitter\u2014probably the wife of an art dealer\u2014in a landscape where she is seated in a relaxed pose with her legs crossed. According to an early auction record, the composition is based upon one of several sketches Prud'hon made for a portrait of Empress Josephine (1763\u20131814). The empress probably rejected the pose as too casual. Prud'hon's portraits show his skill in capturing emotions, especially melancholy. This is true of the Cleveland portrait; despite its rough surface, we sense the sitter's gentle demeanor and slightly wistful expression. In 1789 Prud'hon was awarded the Prix de Rome, a scholarship that allowed especially gifted French art students the chance to study in Rome. While in Italy, Prud'hon was deeply influenced not only by ancient Roman art but also by the lively, international Neoclassical movement that was centered there. After his return to France, the artist became very popular with Napoleon, painting portraits of the emperor and his entourage and acting as Empress Josephine's drawing instructor.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60469200"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1964.292-mme-dufresne"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cle\u0301ment, Charles. Prud'hon; sa vie, ses \u0153uvres et sa correspondance. Paris: Didier et cie, 1880.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ho\u0302tel Drouot, and Paul Chevallier. Tableaux anciens. April 24, 1886.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Henriot, Gabriel. Collection David Weill, vol. 1 pt. 2. Paris: Braun, 1926.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cle\u0301ment, Charles. Prud'hon; sa vie, ses \u0153uvres et sa correspondance. Paris: Didier et cie, 1880.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ho\u0302tel Drouot. Dessins, croquis, e\u0301tudes, tableaux et esquisses par Prud'hon. April 9, 1870.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ho\u0302tel Drouot. Dessins, croquis, e\u0301tudes, tableaux et esquisses par Prud'hon. April 9, 1870.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Goncourt, Edmond de. Catalogue raisonne\u0301 de l'oeuvre peint, dessine\u0301 et grave\u0301 de P.P. Prud'hon. Paris: Rapilly, 1876.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Marcille, Camille, and Eudoxe Marcille. Exposition des \u0153uvres de Prud'hon: au profit de sa fille : E\u0301cole des beaux-arts. Paris: Imprimerie de J. Claye, 1874.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Exposition de tableaux de mai\u0302tres anciens au profit des inondes du midi. [Paris]: [E. Me\u0301nard et J. Augry], 1887.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ho\u0302tel Drouot, and Paul Chevallier. Tableaux anciens. April 24, 1886.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Exposition de tableaux de mai\u0302tres anciens au profit des inondes du midi. [Paris]: [E. Me\u0301nard et J. Augry], 1887.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Galerie Georges Petit. Tableaux anciens & modernes. May 5-7, 1908.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Exposition de tableaux de mai\u0302tres anciens au profit des inondes du midi. [Paris]: [E. Me\u0301nard et J. Augry], 1887.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Galerie Georges Petit. Tableaux anciens & modernes. May 5-7, 1908.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ho\u0302tel Drouot, F. Lair-Dubreuil, and Henri Baudoin. Catalogue des tableaux anciens & modernes, aquarelles, dessins, pastels ... estampes anciennes & modernes de\u0301pendant de la succession de M.P.A. Ch\u00e9ramy. April 14-16, 1913.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "
Galerie Georges Petit. Tableaux anciens & modernes. May 5-7, 1908.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "
Ho\u0302tel Drouot, F. Lair-Dubreuil, and Henri Baudoin. Catalogue des tableaux anciens & modernes, aquarelles, dessins, pastels ... estampes anciennes & modernes de\u0301pendant de la succession de M.P.A. Ch\u00e9ramy. April 14-16, 1913.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "
Ho\u0302tel Drouot, F. Lair-Dubreuil, and Henri Baudoin. Catalogue des tableaux anciens & modernes, aquarelles, dessins, pastels ... estampes anciennes & modernes de\u0301pendant de la succession de M.P.A. Ch\u00e9ramy. April 14-16, 1913.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Duits, Ltd. (Gallery: London, England) records, 1920-1979, stock book 1954-1968, box 21, Getty Research Institute.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ville de Paris. Exposition P.-P. Prud'hon, mai-juin 1922: catalogue. S.l: s.n.], 1922.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Henriot, Gabriel. Collection David Weill, vol. 1 pt. 2. Paris: Braun, 1926.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.). David-Weill Collection Pictures: Exhibited Nov. 10-Dec. 11, 1937. [New York]: [Wildenstein Galleries], 1937.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's (Firm). Highly Important French Drawings and Paintings. June 10, 1959",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's (Firm). Highly Important French Drawings and Paintings. June 10, 1959.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Clifford Duits, invoice, July 12, 1963, in CMA curatorial file.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Duits, Ltd. (Gallery: London, England) records, 1920-1979, stock book 1954-1968, box 21, Getty Research Institute.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 502-504, Vol. II, no. 175",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Guffey, Elizabeth E. Drawing an Elusive Line: The Art of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. Newark, Del: University of Delaware Press, 2001.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 211, fig. 153",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.292",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.292/1964.292_web.jpg",
"width": "667",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "384472",
"filename": "1964.292_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.292/1964.292_print.jpg",
"width": "2540",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "5088214",
"filename": "1964.292_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.292/1964.292_full.tif",
"width": "3660",
"height": "4900",
"filesize": "53833508",
"filename": "1964.292_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Severance and Greta Millikin Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 140342,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1646,
"description": "Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758\u20131823)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Pierre-Paul Prud'hon studied at the Dijon School of Art under Fran\u00e7ois Devosge (1732-1811), founder and director of one of the most prominent art schools in France. In 1776 Prud'hon met the Baron de Joursanvault, a follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and an art lover, who became his first patron. At the age of twenty-two Prud'hon left for Paris, where he attended the Acad\u00e9mie Royale and was introduced to Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) and Jean-Georges Wille (1715-1808), an important engraver and collector. Soon after he returned to Dijon in 1784, he won the Prix de Rome and left for Italy, where he would spend four decisive years. He studied the works of Raphael (1483-1520), Leonardo da Vinci (1452--1519), and Correggio (ca. 1489/94-1534) as well as antique sculptures. He was influenced by the artists Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), Antonio Canova (1757-1822), and Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) rather than his own countrymen, the pupils of David (q.v.). When he returned to Paris in 1788, Prud'hon endorsed the revolutionary ideals. He attended the meetings of David's Club des Arts and made drawings with political overtones that were to be engraved. After Robespierre's execution, Prud'hon was forced to live in exile in the Franche-Comt\u00e9 (1794-96), where he painted several portraits and made book illustrations. Upon his return to Paris he was elected to the Institut de France and received private and public commissions for decorative projects, including, for example, the ceilings in the Greek sculpture rooms of the Louvre and designs for the celebrations of the emperor's coronation and his marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria. During the First Empire (1805-15) he became equally respected for his imperial portraits and was appointed drawing instructor of the new empress. During the Bourbon restoration (1815-23) he still received several public commissions, even though he did not sympathize with the regime. In 1802 Prud'hon's wife had to be institutionalized, leaving him to care for their five children. He would be supported in this task by his pupil, Constance Mayer (1774-1821), who not only became his mistress but also his first artistic collaborator. (Prud'hon often made the preparatory drawings for her paintings.) His last years were plagued with many problems, and Mayer's suicide in 1821 affected him tremendously. He would survive her only briefly, dying two years later in 1823.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1758",
"death_year": "1823",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1964-06-09T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1811,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1816",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:12:28.963000"
}
}