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The Collection of the Late Professor Michael Kauffmann (1931-2023), Director of the Courtauld, London.
Lot 36
Jacques Emile Blanche(French, 1861-1942)Portrait of a young girl
Amended
25 September 2024, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £35,840 inc. premium
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Jacques Emile Blanche (French, 1861-1942)
Portrait of a young girl
signed with initials 'J.E.B' (lower right)
oil on canvas
73.2 x 54.1cm (28 13/16 x 21 5/16in).
signed with initials 'J.E.B' (lower right)
oil on canvas
73.2 x 54.1cm (28 13/16 x 21 5/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Dr Arthur Kauffmann (1887-1983) and by descent to his son,
Professor Michael Kauffmann (1931-2023), London.
Dr Arthur Kauffmann (1887-1983) was an art historian and Frankfurt director of the auction house Hugo Helbing, Berlin. From 1937, Kauffmann was prohibited from holding auctions in Frankfurt due to his Jewish ancestry, and in 1938 he emigrated to London where he continued to deal in art and received British citizenship in 1947. Kauffmann's legacy is well documented, having helped establish the E. G. Bührle Collection Foundation, Zurich. His son, Professor Michael Kauffmann FBA (1931-2023), is also remembered for his significant career as an art historian. Professor Kauffmann worked firstly at the Warburg Institute, then the Manchester City Art Gallery and for several decades at the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1985 he was appointed Director of the Courtauld, where he successfully reunited the Gallery and its Institute at Somerset House.
Saleroom notices
This lot will be included in the online Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre de Jacques-Émile Blanche published by Jane Roberts under no. 1541 and titled Portrait of Pouponne or Wanda Zelenska, circa 1896.
Please see Roberts, J., Jacques Emile Blanche, 2012, Paris, for three other portraits of the same sitter, pp. 70-71.
When he wasn't painting portrait commissions or his friends, Blanche would call upon models that he would find close to Auteuil: Lucie Esnault, his locksmith's daughter, Désirée Manfred or as here, "Pouponne"("Baby face") Zelenska whom he painted at every age from 1892 onwards, dressing her up in all sorts of disguises which he kept in his studio. The highly feminine and charming physique of Wanda, encouraged Blanche to paint her in eighteenth century inspired costumes against a landscape reminiscent of the English painters whom he so admired, such as Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Other paintings of Wanda can be seen in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Caen, and the Musée Blanche at Offranville as well as in several private collections and numerous lithographs. Here, Wanda, aged about ten years old,. She came from a Polish family who lived near Blanche in Passy and grew up to be a talented violinist and cellist, often accompanying her sister, Hélène, renowned for her performances on the chromatic harp.
We are grateful to Jane Roberts for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.