at the Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, Paris

Recent acquisitions (2008–12) at the Fondation Custodia,
Frits Lugt Collection, Paris
AFTER THE SECOND World War the Dutchman Frits Lugt
(1884–1970) and his wife To Lugt-Klever (1888–1969)
looked for a place in Paris to house the Fondation Custodia,
whose primary aim was to maintain, enrich and study the Lugt
collection – consisting of drawings, paintings, portrait miniatures,
prints, artists’ letters, rare books, stained glass, antiquities
and Chinese porcelain – and, in a broader sense, to serve
art history in general. In the 1950s they bought the hôtel particulier
named after an earlier owner, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot
(1727–81), controller of finances under Louis XVI and
contributor to the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert. In
1957 Hôtel Turgot opened its doors to art historians, art
lovers, students, amateurs, artists and art dealers. For some
time the Lugts supervised the organisation of exhibitions and
other art-historical events in Paris and abroad, making acquisitions
and instigating research projects. Soon they appointed
Carlos van Hasselt (1929–2009), previously keeper of drawings
at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In 1970 he
became the first director of the Fondation. Building on the
collection, he acquired many Indian miniatures and artists’
letters, but also started to acquire Danish drawings, a new
field. In 1994 he was succeeded by Mària van Berge-Gerbaud
(born 1945), who directed the Fondation with enormous
energy and flair. She oversaw the publication of many catalogues
and shaped the research project for the study of collectors’
marks initiated by Lugt decades earlier. It resulted in the
website www.marquesdecollections.fr, which went online in
March 2010, just before her retirement. Its contents are
updated on a daily basis by a team of dedicated researchers. In
2010 the Fondation received a bequest of some sixty oilsketches,
mainly plein-air landscapes, from the collection of
Carlos van Hasselt and André Nieuweglowski. Like John and
Charlotte Gere in London, the two devoted themselves to
collecting in this barely explored field in the 1970s. The Fondation
intends to build on this collection, and the first results
of this endeavour are presented here with works from the
bequest. This Supplement is also intended to give an impression
of the range of recent collecting activities. There are
I. Self-portrait, by Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78). c.1642. Pen, brush in brown
ink, black and red chalk, 17 by 13.5 cm. Purchased 2012 (inv. no.2012-T.4).
This intimate drawing of a young apprentice, who gazes at himself in a mirror –
the hands too big as a result of foreshortening – must have been made by
Hoogstraten after entering Rembrandt’s workshop around October 1641. One
wonders whether some of the obvious corrections in the drawing might have been
done by his master. Later Hoogstraten used the drawing for a painting that includes
the window and chain but shows the artist observing what is happening outside
rather than himself.
works on paper, drawings, prints and sketchbooks, as well as
artists’ letters and documents. Old and rare books and sculpture
are not included. We have tried to emphasise how
important the sketch is in the collection and how vital are
images that illustrate how works of art were made, enjoyed,
sold, collected, and how artists depicted themselves, their
world and each other.
GER LUIJTEN, Director
II. Sketchbook with views in and around Naples, by
Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy (1757–1841). 1812.
Brush and grey and black ink 13 by 24.5 cm. Purchased
2009 (inv. no.2009-T.20).
This sketchbook was used by Dunouy during his
second stay in Italy between 1810 and 1815. This view
near Naples was drawn on 30th May 1812. Dunouy
noted the time, ‘2 h. après-Midi’, and brilliantly conveys
the strong clear afternoon light.
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III. Letter to Niccolò Gaddi (1537–91), by Francesco Bassano the Younger
(1549–92). Venice, 25th May 1581. Purchased 2008 (inv. no.2008-A.647).
At the collector Gaddi’s request, the artist sends some drawings by himself
and his old father, apologising for their poor quality because in their workshop
‘not much drawing had been done’, and proposes to execute a series
of Twelve Months for Gaddi. As far as is known, this is the only letter
from a member of the Bassano family to have survived.
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IV. Niels Heinrich Weinwich contemplating a painting by Dahl, by Johan Christian
Clausen Dahl (1788–1857). c.1825. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over a sketch
in pencil, 24.3 by 19.5 cm. Purchased 2009 (inv. no.2009-A.1453).
This amusing drawing was probably enclosed in a letter to a friend of Dahl’s, the
actor Jens Stephan Heger (1769–1855). The historian Weinwich (‘W.’; 1755–1829)
wrote several works on Danish art and artists and, as we learn from Dahl’s cynical
comments, ordered a picture from him, which he later refused to pay for.
V. Manuscript on perspective,
by an unknown Dutch
writer. c.1640. 200 pp., each
32 by 21 cm. Purchased
2009 (inv. no.2009-A.633).
This fascinating manuscript
contains instructions for all
kinds of mathematical,
geometrical and perspectival
constructions, skilfully
illustrated: tiled floors,
furniture, stairways,
architecture, sundials,
prisms, anamorphoses, etc.
The latter adapt etchings by
Rembrandt from 1630–34.
It comes from the Van
Beeck Calkoen family,
who had owned it since
the nineteenth century.
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VI. Journal of travels in
Italy, by Pierre-Henri
de Valenciennes
(1750–1819). 1779–80.
Purchased 2008 (inv.
no.2008-A.633).
The neatly written
pages of this tiny manuscript
(13 by 9 cm.)
contain descriptions
of three separate trips
undertaken by the artist
during his sojourn in
Rome. Apart from
sensitive landscape
descriptions that bring
to mind Valenciennes’s
pioneer role in plein-air
painting and drawing,
the manuscript contains
sketches of architecture,
costume and the
scenery seen in the
places he visited.
VII. Letter to Georges-Daniel de Monfreid (1856–1929), by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). Mataiea, Tahiti, 11th March 1892. Purchased 2008 (inv. no.2008-A.607).
Written during Gauguin’s first stay in Tahiti to his confidant and future executor, the letter offers a vivid picture of the artist’s primitive life and physical sufferings
on the island. Its chief interest, however, is the sketch it contains of Ia Orana Maria, Gauguin’s first major Tahitian canvas (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
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VIII. Portrait of Caspar David Friedrich, by Alphonse de Labroue (1792–1863). 1820.
Watercolour and gouache on ivory, 8.6 by 7.2 cm.; with frame 15 by 13.5 cm.
Purchased 2010 (inv. no.2010-PM.1).
To judge from an inscription on the reverse, Labroue portrayed Friedrich at the
Academy in Dresden. With David d’Angers he must have been among the few
French artists who made the acquaintance of the Romantic painter.
X. Five women making music on a terrace. Kangra, c.1780–90. Brush and black and
grey ink on beige paper, 13.6 by 21.6 cm. Purchased 2008 (inv. no.2008-T.3).
This delicate piece of draughtsmanship showing women playing a barrel drum,
a tambura, a vina and a sarod was made by an artist from the generation after
the great painter Pandit Nainsukh (died 1778).
XI. Diadem spider, by an unidentified
French artist. Nineteenth
century. Black lead, pen and black
ink watercolour, heightened with
gum arabic, diameter 8.3 cm.; with
frame 14.7 cm. Purchased 2012
(inv. no.2012-T.5).
The artist who made this little
trompe l’oeil drew the spider actual
size. The circular shape gives
the impression that we are
looking through a lens at the
insect weaving its web.
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IX. Self-portrait, by Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830). 1806. Watercolour
and gouache on ivory, 8 by 6.7 cm.; with frame 17.2 by 14 cm. Purchased
2010 (inv. no.2010-PM.2).
The miniaturist Autissier was appointed peintre du roi by Louis-Napoleon
when he became king of the Netherlands in 1806, the same year this
vivid self-portrait was made.
XII. Raja Prakash, Chand of Guler, with his queen, Ananta Devi, and
the young prince Bhup Singh near a window. Guler, c.1770. Gouache,
heightened with gold, on paper, 16.9 by 10.7 cm. (18.2 by 11.9
with borders). Purchased 2008 (inv. no.2008-T.2).
XIII. Self-portrait, drawing, by Jan Lutma the Younger (1624–89). c.1650. Etching,
15.8 by 13.3 cm. Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-P.47).
One wonders whether this sensitive portrait was not made directly on the plate by
candlelight. The play of light at the tip of the nose, the rim of the hat and especially
around the eyes, suggests a single source of light, as does the shadow cast in the
background. Lutma used a very thin etching needle and is clearly indebted to
Rembrandt, both in style and in the type of this true-to-life self-portrait.
XV. Disparate feminine –
pesa mas que un burro
muerto, by Francisco José
de Goya y Lucientes
(1746–1828). c.1815/24.
Etching and aquatint,
24.4 by 35.6 cm.
Purchased 2011 (inv.
no.2011-P.31).
This is the first sheet of
the series Los Proverbios
and one of only four
known trial proofs printed
in a rich toned black
ink. A group of women
have turned men into
puppets and play with
them. Their victims,
Goya implies, are as
stupid as the dead
donkey included in
the scene.
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XIV. Self-portrait, by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702–89). c.1780. Mezzotint,
burin and roulette, 47.8 by 38.6 cm. Purchased 2010 on the occasion of
the appointment of Ger Luijten as director of the Fondation Custodia
(inv. no.2010-P.52).
‘Effet. Clair obscur sans sacrifice’ is inscribed beneath the image. This rare print
shows the artist with an ironic expression. The variety of techniques used
to achieve the dramatic lighting illustrates the artist’s desire to experiment
lasted throughout his career.
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XVI. The campagna with a view of Vignanello, by Jan Frans van Bloemen, called ‘Orizzonte’ (1662–1749). c.1740.
Pen and brown ink over a light preliminary sketch in black chalk, brown and grey wash, squared, 36.9 by 54 cm.
Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-T.37).
This is a study for the large painting in Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome, in which Van Bloemen included portraits of
members of the Ruspoli family, carriages and horses.
XVIII. Company making music, by Anthoni Sallarts (Sallaert) (before 1590–1650). c.1640. Oil on panel, 25.5 by
34.2 cm. Purchased 2012 (inv. no.2012-S.8).
The directness of this sketch en brunaille is typical of many works by Sallarts. The variety of instruments depicted
in this musical company is remarkable – the xylophone was certainly a rare instrument – and everyone in the
scene plays a part. The women trying to hit the high notes are rendered in such a vivid manner, with mouths
wide open, that one could believe the sketch was in fact done from life.
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XVII. The adoration of the shepherds, by Cornelis
Schut (1597–1655). Pen and brown ink, brown
wash, red chalk, 40.2 by 27.2 cm. Purchased 2011
(inv. no.2011-T.10).
This sheet is part of a recently acquired group of
twenty-two drawings by the artist. They are in a
variety of techniques and explain the genesis of a
number of paintings by Schut. This unusual drawing
is concerned with chiaroscuro. The groups of angels
with floating ribbons in the sky occur in similar
configurations in paintings and etchings by the artist.
XIX. Portrait of François Langlois, called Ciartres, by an
unidentified artist. c.1635. Oil on canvas, 91.5 by 68.5
cm. Purchased 2010 (inv. no.2010-S.61).
François Langlois (1589–1647) is shown as a picture
dealer: he unrolls a canvas to show it to the spectator.
He was also an important print publisher and an
amateur musician, who played the cornemuse shown as
part of the still life in the foreground. Anthony van
Dyck also made a portrait of him playing the instrument
(owned jointly by the National Gallery, London,
and the Barber Art Institute, Birmingham). The recent
attribution of the picture to Claude Vignon, a friend of
the sitter, cannot be upheld, even though a ‘Ritratto del
Ciartres’ is mentioned in the inventory of Vignon’s
goods after his death in 1670.
XX. Portrait of a girl
with a deer, by
Nicolaes Maes
(1634–93). c.1680. Oil
on canvas, 58 by 49
cm. Purchased 2011
(inv. no.2011-S.3).
Little of Rembrandt’s
influence is visible in
this painting, which
dates from the period
in which Maes
concentrated on
portraiture. The
Arcadian motif of a
girl with a deer near a
well is ingeniously
displayed: the girl
with her astounding
curly hair looks away,
and the deer casts an
eye on the viewer
while tearing a fresh
leaf from a tree.
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XXI. Samson and
Delilah(?), by Adriaen
van der Werff
(1659–1722). c.1693.
Oil on canvas, 35.7 by
28.7 cm. Purchased 2010
(inv. no.2010-S.62).
In 1693 the artist
finished a painting in
full colour of the same
composition which was
once in Potsdam.
Whether the attractive
woman is actually
cutting the hair of the
sleeping man is not clear
and it has been suggested
that this work shows
Cleopatra and Mark
Antony, given the
sculpture of Hercules in
the background. This
brunaille must be a ricordo
of the picture which
it surpasses in fluency
of execution.
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XXIII. The church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo at Ariccia, by
Paul Baudry (1828–86). Pencil, 26.9 by 27.8 cm. Purchased
2010 (inv. no.2010.T.8). The church, designed by Bernini, is
also seen in the landscape by Desgoffe (pl.XXVII), albeit in
the far distance.
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XXII. View of Lago di Nemi with the town of Genzano in
the distance, by Jean-Achille Benouville (1815–91).
c.1845. Watercolour, gouache and black chalk over a
sketch in pen and brown ink on blue paper, 37.5 by
56.3 cm. Purchased 2010 (inv. no.2010-T.6).
XXIV. View of Ariccia, by Alexandre Desgoffe (1805–82). 1841. Oil on paper, laid down on canvas, 24.4
by 40.9 cm. Bequest Carlos van Hasselt and André Nieuweglowski, 2010 (inv. no.2010-S.17).
This view of the city of Ariccia bathed in sunlight was made in August 1841 during the artist’s second
visit to Italy, from 1839 to 1842.
XXV. La plaine de Vaugirard, by Léon Bonvin (1834–66).
1856. Black chalk, 17.4 by 26.7 cm.
Purchased 2008 (inv. no.2008-T.8). This atmospheric view
probably shows the blind wall of the family-run inn of the
Bonvins in the village of Vaugirard. The rigorous and
intense use of black chalk seem to be a prelude to the
drawings of Georges Seurat from the 1880s.
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XXVI. Study of clouds, by an unidentified artist. First half of the nineteenth century.
Oil on panel, 22.8 by 30.4 cm. Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-S.11).
So many artists who made oil-sketches studied the sky in the nineteenth century that
it is quite difficult to attribute them. This one is painted on a thin piece of wood.
It has been associated with Simon Denis (1755–1813), but the attribution is doubtful.
XXVII. View of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco, by Achille-Etna Michallon (1796–1822).
1818. Oil on paper, laid down on canvas. Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-S.18).
Michallon played a crucial role in the development of plein-air landscape painting,
chiefly because of the sheer quality of his work, which was evident from the very
beginning. From 1818–21 he was in Italy where this splendid view was made.
XXVIII. Vesuvius with Naples in the foreground, by Léopold Robert
(1794–1835). 1821. Oil on canvas, 18.5 by 28.5 cm. Bequest Carlos van
Hasselt and André Nieuweglowski, 2010 (inv. no.2010-S.7).
Léopold Robert is chiefly known for paintings with a much higher degree
of finish. This sketch is close to the work of Corot of the same period.
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XXIX. In the Souk, Algiers, the cloth-dyer’s stall, by Louis-Gabriel-
Eugène Isabey (1803–86). 1830. Oil on canvas, laid down on cardboard,
28.8 by 24.5 cm. Purchase 2011 (inv. no.2011-S.10). In 1830,
when still a young artist, Isabey went to Algeria on a French military
expedition and made this sketch of pieces of cloth drying after
having been dyed. The strong colours and bold brushwork give this
painting an unusually modern appeal.
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XXX. The hunter in a grotto in Cervara, by Martinus Christian W. Rørbye (1803–48). 1835. Oil on
paper, laid down on cardboard, 20 by 31 cm. Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-S.16). The Danish
artist Rørbye was certainly never repetitive, and this little symphony in brown stands out as a
highly original work. The fire burning in the foreground, the massive rocks and the hunter
making his way into the daylight make this sketch an intriguing work of art.
XXXI. The monastery of Alpirsbach near Freudenstadt (Black Forest), by Frederik Sødring (1809–62). c.1840. Oil on paper, laid down on cardboard, 40.5 by 57.2 cm.
Purchase 2012 (inv. no.2012-S.6).
Sødring shared his studio with Christen Købke. He was a master in the depiction of architecture and cultivated a severe palette in his depiction of materials and
textures, as in this sketch, which is all about brick, logs of wood and stones, structure and rhythm, and shades of red and brown.
XXXII. Hut near the sea, by Vilhelm Kyhn
(1819–1903). 1889. Oil on canvas, 24 by 39.5
cm. Bequest Carlos van Hasselt and André
Nieuweglowski, 2010 (inv. no.2010-S.19).
XXXIV. Olive trees near Tivoli, by Janus
LaCour (1837–1909). 1869. Oil on
paper, laid down on canvas, 37.3 by 60.6
cm. Purchase 2012 (inv. no.2012-S.7).
A pupil of Skovgaard and Marstrand,
LaCour concentrated on landscape
painting. He travelled widely and was
able to capture the atmosphere of the
Danish landscape as well as the scenery
around the Swiss lakes. He is most
famous for his sunlit Italian views.
Although one might think it is high
summer, LaCour annotated this view:
‘Tivoli 18–30 April 1869’.
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XXXIII. View of Mons Klimt, by Frederik Niels Martin
Rohde (1816–86). Oil on paper, laid down on panel,
26.5 by 39 cm. Bequest Carlos van Hasselt and André
Nieuweglowski, 2010 (inv. no.2010-S.18).
One wonders whether this type of painting – in 2012
the Fondation bought a similar sketch with the same
configuration of cliffs by Peter Christian Skovgaard –
could have existed without Caspar David Friedrich’s
views of Rügen, in which the impressive structure of
bleak massive rocks is also emphasised.
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XXXVI. The artist’s wife in the studio, by
Archibald McGlashan (1888–1980). c.1930.
Oil on canvas, 41 by 30.5 cm. Purchased 2011
(inv. no.2011-S.21).
The Scottish artist McGlashan used his wife as
his model and posed her, while pregnant with
their second child, in a wonderfully captured
contre-jour light in his studio in Glasgow’s
West End. The informality of the subject, the
handling of light and the limited palette recall
Adolph von Menzel’s oil-sketches.
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XXXV. Nude in black stockings on a bed,
by George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923).
c.1900. Oil on panel, 20.3 by 30.5 cm.
Purchased 2011 (inv. no.2011-S.19).
The artist loosely based this broadly brushed
little picture on a photograph he took
himself. According to a note stuck on the
back written by Kees Maks, Breitner’s only
pupil, he presented it to him saying ‘This is
how one should paint’.
XXXVII. Lonely house, by Jozef van
Ruyssevelt (1941–85). 1971. Gouache
on paper, 36 by 23.5 cm. Purchased 2012
(inv. no.2012-T.6).
In works such as this the artist, a great etcher
who taught at the Academy in Antwerp,
combined solid composition with a free and
bold use of brush strokes, rendering texture
while letting his paint look like paint.
XXXVIII. Overseas mail, by Frans
Pannekoek (born 1937). 2011. Etching,
11.5 by 14.8 cm. Purchased 2011 (inv.
no.2011-P.103).
Pannekoek’s prints were collected by Carlos
van Hasselt since the early 1970s. Upon his
retirement as director in 1994 he donated his
extensive collection to the Fondation
Custodia, which has since then continued
to acquire etchings directly from the artist.
The image of a crab on an envelope has
been printed by the artist in a variety of
colours from the same plate, similar to the
method used by Hercules Segers in the
seventeenth century.