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Gallery Text

Perronneau, a painter and printmaker known for his delicate use of color and light, worked mainly for bourgeois families in the French provinces and abroad. Here he highlights the intellectual pursuits of the influential merchant and shipowner Bonaventure Journu (1717–1781), a member of a wealthy Bordeaux family for whom Perronneau composed numerous portraits. Journu was an enthusiast of science, philosophy, and the arts, and used his shipping fleet and fortune to amass an extraordinary assortment of natural specimens from across the globe. Draping him in a lustrously rendered blue dressing gown, Perronneau portrays the otherwise staid Journu gestsuring towad his famous collection in the cabinet behind him. His collection was confiscated during the French Revolution but was later recovered and given to the city of Bordeaux by his son, Bernard Journu-Auber, the Count of Tustal and manager of the Bank of France under Napoleon.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.270
People
Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, French (Paris c. 1715 - 1783 Amsterdam)
Title
Bonaventure Journu (1717 - 1781)
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Portrait of Bonaventure Journu
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1767
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230202

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
100.1 x 80.9 cm (39 7/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
framed: 119 x 99 cm (46 7/8 x 39 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: 1767 / Perroneau

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Bernard Journu-Auber, Count de Tustal, son of Bonaventure Journu, by descent; to Genevieve Le Grix de La Salle, his daughter, and Jacques Le Grix de La Salle, Château de Grands Verdus, à Sedisac, Gironde, 1816, by descent; to Louise Legrix de Tustal, sold; to [Demotte, New York, 1918], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, Janaury 1923, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.270
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (troisième article), Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April 1, 1896), pp. 309-310
  • Léandre Vaillat and Paul Ratouis de Limay, J. - B. Perronneau (1715-1783) Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre, Librairie Nationale d'Arte et d'Historie (Paris, 1923), pp. 96-97, repr. as pl. 28
  • Perronneau à Bordeaux, 1989, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, pp. 99-100, no. 21, repr. p. 99
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)
  • Barbara Maria Stafford, Artful Science: Enlightenment, Entertainment,and the Eclipse of Visual Education, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA, 1994), repr. in b/w p. 52, fig. 43
  • Odile Cavalier, Possession et découverts: La collection d'un curieux Languedocien, La Sabretache et la Plume ([online publication], 2015), pp. 13-14, repr.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/06/2016 - 11/14/2018

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu