1943.270: Bonaventure Journu (1717 - 1781)
PaintingsGallery 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
-
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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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