id: 150017 accession number: 1980.233 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.233 updated: 2022-01-04 16:54:21.801000 Attributes of Music, 1863. François Bonvin (French, 1817-1887). Oil on fabric; unframed: 62.6 x 116 cm (24 5/8 x 45 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.233 title: Attributes of Music title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1863 creation date earliest: 1863 creation date latest: 1863 current location: creditline: Bequest of Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * François Bonvin (French, 1817-1887) - artist Born into a poor family, François Bonvin was chiefly a self-taught artist. His childhood was an unhappy one, marked by the death of his mother when he was four, his father's remarriage, and the growing family's constant moving and change of fortune. From 1828 through 1830 he was lucky enough to be sent to the École de Dessin in Paris, but his artistic education was short-lived and he began working as a typesetter in 1832. He became a father one month after his marriage in 1837 and, in order to achieve financial security, applied for a clerk's job at the Paris Police Department-where he remained until 1850-while still working as a printer. Painting was still part of his life as attested by one of his first known oils, a still life from 1839. His health declined, and during a hospital-ization in 1842, Bonvin took up drawing again. He eventually returned to study at the École de Dessin and also at the Manufacture des Gobelins and in 1843 attended classes at the Académie Suisse where he could sketch from nude models. Around this time Bonvin was also introduced to Granet (q.v.), whom he would consider his true mentor, although never officially studying with him. Bonvin began painting scenes from everyday life, reflecting the simplicity and often the drudgery of the lower classes. He was encouraged in his choice of subject matter by Granet, who suggested he study the Dutch masters. Bonvin exhibited at the Salon from 1847 to 1880, receiving a second-class medal in 1850. The artist became involved in the realist movement, meeting regularly at the Brasserie Andler with, among others, his friends Jules Champfleury, a novelist and art critic, and Courbet (q.v.). During the Second Empire (1852-70) Bonvin earned a reputation with his still lifes and genre paintings that often paid tribute to the Dutch Old Masters. He traveled several times to the Netherlands in order to study such works. Bonvin also encour-aged younger painters, such as J. A. M. Whistler (1834-1903) and Fantin-Latour (q.v.), holding an exhibition of their works in his studio after they were rejected at the Salon. During his final years, Bonvin suffered from blindness and paralysis and died a broken man in 1887. --- measurements: Unframed: 62.6 x 116 cm (24 5/8 x 45 11/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed upper right, in umber paint: F.s Bonvin / 1863 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1980 opening date: 1981-06-23T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 23-July 19, 1981). title: The Magic of Still Life opening date: 1986-11-04T05:00:00 The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-March 8, 1987). title: Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection opening date: 1989-02-06T05:00:00 Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-June 11, 1989). title: Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art opening date: 2012-09-26T00:00:00 Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (organizer) (September 2-December 2, 2012). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA. Chardin and the Still-life Tradition in France (1979), 89, no. 10.
Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN (8/26/2012 - 11/15/2012): "Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art", ex. cat. no. 10, p. 50-51. --- PROVENANCE (Couturier sale, Hôtel Drouot, March 19, 1976 (lot 42), sold to Galerie Brame and Lorenceau) date: 1976 footnotes: * This auction catalogue notes that the sale consists of the “Succession de Madame C[outurier]…et appartenant à divers,” which indicates that while the sale included the estate of Madame Couturier, it also contained the property of other, unnamed collectors. The catalogue does not specifiy the former owner of the Bonvin. There were a number of collectors and other art world figures by the name of Couturier active in Paris at this time, and further details of “Madame Couturier’s” identity are unknown. citations: (Galerie Brame and Lorenceau, Paris, sold to Marianne Feilchenfeldt) date: 1976 footnotes: * The gallery’s archives record the purchase of the Bonvin at Hôtel Drouot on October 5, 1976, and its sale to dealer Marianne Feilchenfeldt on August 27, 1976. citations: (Marianne Feilchenfeldt, Zürich, sold to Noah L. Butkin) date: 1976-1977 footnotes: citations: Noah L. Butkin [1918-1980], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Muriel S. Butkin date: 1977-1980 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1980- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: A lute and flute rest on top of sheet music. This painting was intended to hang above a door, opposite still lifes that represented the other fine arts of painting and sculpture (the two related paintings are in the Musée du Louvre, Paris). Bonvin was part of the 19th-century movement known as Realism. Led by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), the Realist painters were interested in depicting the world that surrounded them, as well as the popular culture of their time. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS
Estate of Noah L. Butkin, Bequests to Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Murel S. Butkin. Estates, Gifts, and Funds, Series 1, Box 2:14. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
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Marianne Feilchenfeldt, letter to Sherman Lee, July 30, 1977, in CMA curatorial file.
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Marianne Feilchenfeldt, invoice, Sept. 5, 1977, in CMA curatorial file.
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Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.  
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Weisberg, Gabriel P., and François Bonvin. Bonvin. Paris: Éditions Geoffroy-Dechaume, 1979. 
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Snite Museum of Art, and Gabriel P. Weisberg. Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. 2012. 
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Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes. 1976. 
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Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.  

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