Portrait of Richard Gallo (original) (raw)

Date: 1881

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

Unframed: 38 5/16 × 45 15/16 inches (97.31 × 116.68 cm)

Framed: 53 3/8 × 45 × 3 3/4 inches (135.57 × 114.3 × 9.53 cm)

Credit Line: Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the generosity of Mrs. George C. Reuland through the W. J. Brace Charitable Trust and through exchange of the bequests of Mr. and Mrs. William James Brace and Frances Logan; the gifts of Harold Woodbury Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Bloch, and the Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust; and other Trust properties

Object number: 89-35

Signed: l.r.: "G. Caillebotte/ 1881"

DescriptionA man in a black suit with his arms folded and holding a newspaper sits on a red and green patterned sofa.

Exhibition History

7me Exposition des Artistes Indépendants [_7th Impressionist Exhibition_], 251 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, March 1‒31, 1882, no. 5, as Portrait de M. G.

Exposition Rétrospective d’Œuvres de G. Caillebotte, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, June 4‒16, 1894, no. 81, as Portrait de M. R. G.

Gustave Caillebotte: The Unknown Impressionist , Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 28‒June 23, 1996, no. 26, as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye , The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, June 28‒October 4, 2015; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, November 8, 2015‒February 14, 2016, no. 25, as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Gallery Label

Richard Gallo, a close friend of Gustave Caillebotte and editor of the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel, is shown with his arms folded defiantly across his chest and a copy of the conservative rival paper, Le Figaro, on his lap. Caillebotte developed a distinctive style characterized by spatial distortions that often suggest the mood or psychology of his subjects.

Depictions of modern Parisian life, whether on the streets or inside middle-class homes, dominated Caillebotte’s paintings of the 1870s and early 1880s.

Provenance

Given by the artist to the sitter, Richard Gallo (1849‒1936), Paris, probably 1881‒1907 [1];

His gift to his niece, Marthe Rolland (née Grandguillot, 1877‒1965), Paris, 1907‒1965 [2];

By descent to her son, Maurice Rolland (1904‒1988), Paris, 1965‒1988;

By inheritance to his sister, Jeanne Janette Malcor (née Rolland, 1901‒1995), Paris, 1988 [3];

Purchased from Malcor by Paul (1950‒2013) and Ellen Melas Kyriazi Josefowitz, London and Lausanne, August 25‒ November 26, 1988 [4];

Purchased from Paul and Ellen Josefowitz by the dealer David Ramus, Atlanta, GA and New York, on joint account with Hirschl and Adler, New York, stock no. 6852/2, November 26, 1988‒1989 [5];

Purchased from David Ramus and Hirschl and Adler by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1989.

NOTES:

[1] In a statement on the painting’s history, dated May 20, 1988, Richard Gallo’s grand-nephew-in-law, Henri Malcor, wrote that Gallo collected a number of paintings from Impressionist artists, to whom he was introduced by his friend Gustave Caillebotte. Ultimately, Gallo only kept the five paintings Caillebotte gave to him, three of which represented Gallo. See “Richard Gallo” by Henri Malcor, May 20, 1988, copy in NAMA curatorial files.

[2] The Caillebotte catalogue raisonné indicates the painting passed to Gallo’s nephew, Maurice Rolland, at the time of Gallo’s death in 1936. However, Maurice Rolland was actually Gallo’s grand-nephew, and according to Henri Malcor’s statement on Richard Gallo (see note 1), Gallo gave the painting to his niece Marthe in 1907, when Gallo moved to Alexandria, Egypt. The painting then passed to Marthe’s son Maurice Rolland. See Marie Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte: catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels (Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1994), no. 182, p. 144, and “Richard Gallo” by Henri Malcor, May 20, 1988, copy in NAMA curatorial files.

[3] Carole Bonzon-Vachette, Jeanne Malcor’s great-granddaughter, confirmed the family’s sale of the painting following Maurice Rolland’s death in correspondence with Megan Seiler, NAMA, May 27, 2020, NAMA curatorial files.

[4] According to Ellen Josefowitz, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, June 8, 2020, NAMA curatorial files.

[5] See email from Gregory Hedberg, Hirschl and Adler, New York, to Nicole Myers, NAMA, May 11, 2015, and email from Ellen Josefowitz to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, June 8, 2020, NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Catalogue de la 7me Exposition des Artistes Indépendants , exh. cat. (Paris: Morris père et fils, 1882), unpaginated [repr. in, Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes , vol. 23, Impressionist Group Exhibitions (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated], as Portrait de M. G.

Gaston d’Alq., “Art et bibelots: L’Exposition des Peintres indépendants,” La Liberté (March 2, 1882): 3.

Possibly Fichtre, “L’Actualité: L’Exposition des peintres indépendants,” Le Réveil (March 2, 1882): 1.

Possibly La Fare, “Exposition des Impressionnistes,” Le Gaulois 15, no. 901 (March 2, 1882): 2.

“Les Peintres indépendants,” L’Intransigeant (March 2, 1882): 3.

Jacques Durand, “Échos du jour: Paris, ” La Presse 47, no. 61 (March 3, 1882): 1.

Charles Flor, “Deux Expositions,” Le National 14, no. 4735 (March 3, 1882): 2.

Possibly A. Hustin, “L’Exposition des Peintres Indépendants,” L’Estafette (March 3, 1882): 3.

Possibly A. Hustin, “L’Exposition des impressionnistes,” Moniteur des Arts 25, no. 1402 (March 10, 1882): 1.

Henri Rivière, “Aux indépendants,” Le chat noir (April 8, 1882): 4.

Exposition Rétrospective d’Œuvres de G. Caillebotte, exh. cat. (Paris: Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1894), 6, as Portrait de M. R. G.

Marie Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte, 1848 ‒ 1894: Catalogue des peintures et pastels (Paris: Wildenstein, 1951), no. 127, unpaginated, as Portrait de M. G….

Marie Berhaut, Caillebotte, Sa Vie et Son Œuvre: Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Pastels (Paris: Fondation Wildenstein, 1978), no. 167, pp. 110, 125, 138, 179, 249, (repro.), as Portrait de Richard Gallo.

Charles S. Moffett, ed., The New Painting, Impressionism, 1874–1886, exh. cat.(Geneva, Switzerland: Richard Burton SA, Publishers, 1986), 379, 394, as Portrait de M. G.

Kirk Varnedoe, Gustave Caillebotte (1987; repr., New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), 196.

Janet Majure, “How Art Galleries Stay Competitive: Museums’ Practice of Buying, Selling Under Intense Scrutiny in Today’s Market,” Kansas City Star 110, no. 240(June 10, 1990): I10.

Laura Caruso, “Caillebotte Joins Ranks at Nelson: Museum Pays its Highest Price Ever for Portrait by Impressionist,” Kansas City Star 111, no. 6 (September 23, 1990): J[1], J4, (repro.), as Portrait of M. Richard Gallo.

“New at the Nelson: Impressionist Masterpiece,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (October 1990): 2‒3, (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Roger Ward, “Selected Acquisitions of European and American Paintings at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1986‒1990,” Burlington Magazine, 133, no. 1055 (February 1991): 153, 156, (repro.).

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson Celebrates its 60th: Museum built its reputation, collection virtually ‘from scratch’,” Kansas City Star 113, no. 304 (July 18, 1993): J5.

Roger Ward and Patricia Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993), 45, 130, 210, (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Marie Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte: catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels(Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1994), no. 182, p. 144, (repro.) as Portrait de Richard Gallo.

Gustave Caillebotte: 1848 ‒ 1894, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994), 220‒21, 237, 240, 242, 292, 358, 373, 375, (repro.), as Portrait de Richard Gallo [repr., Gustave Caillebotte: The Unknown Impressionist, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1996), 105‒06, 123, 128‒29, 137, 212, (repro.), as _Portrait of Richard Gallo_].

Ruth Berson, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886; Documentation (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1996), no. VII-5, pp. 1:377, 379, 386‒87, 389, 395, 398, 401, 409; 2:201, 215, (repro.), as Portrait de M. G.

Gustave Caillebotte, 1848–1894: Dessins, Pastels et Peintures, exh. cat. (Paris: Brame et Lorenceau, 1998), 19, as Portrait de M. G.

Patrick Shaw Cable, “Questions of Work, Class, Gender, and Style in the Art and Life of Gustave Caillebotte,” (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 2000), vii, 48, 179‒80, 180n312, 259, (repro.), as Portrait of M. G.

Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale (London: Christie’s, February 6, 2001), 34, as Portrait de Richard Gallo.

Alice Thorson, “Nelson curator of European art heading to Florida,” Kansas City Star (August 19, 2001): I4.

Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale (London: Christie’s, February 5, 2002), 34.

Caillebotte: Au cœur de l'impressionnisme,exh. cat. (Lausanne: Bibliothèque des Arts, 2005), 177, as Portrait de M. G.

Alice Thorson, “Nelson Makeover: Euro Edition,” Kansas City Star 126, no. 281 (June 25, 2006): G7, as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, Dorothee Hansen, and Gry Hedin, Gustave Caillebotte, exh. cat. (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2008), 87n6.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 35, 122, (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Karin Sagner, Gustave Caillebotte: Neue Perspektiven des Impressionismus(Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2009), 10, 73, 102, 142, 176, (repro.), as Porträt Richard Gallo.

Shimbata Yasuhide,Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist in Modern Paris, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Bridgestone Museum of Art, 2013), 76, 258.

Mary Morton and George T. M. Shackelford, Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye, exh. cat. (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2015), 16, 36, 40‒41, 53, 154, 164‒65, 174‒75, 277, (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Sylvain Amic and Diederik Bakhuÿs, Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot, exh. cat. (Rouen:Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2016), 76, 93, as Portrait de Richard Gallo.

Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 65, (repro.).

Michael Marrinan,Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872 ‒1887 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016), 265, 266, 281n55, (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Lexie Sharabianlou, “ Why audio tours still work: storytelling that immerses, excites, and inspires listeners,” Blooloop.com (August 13, 2019): https://blooloop.com/guru-audio-tours-still-work/ , (repro.), as Portrait of Richard Gallo.

Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale(New York: Sotheby’s, November 12, 2019), (repro.) as_Portrait of Richard Gallo_.

Megan Seiler, “Gustave Caillebotte, Portrait of Richard Gallo, 1881,” catalogue entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.610.5407.