LACMA's new Henner acquisition and the market for 19th century European portraits
By Steve Roach
First published in Steve Roach and the art of law
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a clever way of selecting and funding some of the art for its collection. Each year it hosts a Collectors Committee event, where donors pool resources to purchase works for the collection. Curators from the various departments present works, giving short but passionate presentations on the object’s importance, condition and its place in the collection.
The members come together for dinner and vote on which pieces to acquire. The 2010 event raised more than $2 million dollars, and purchased some great objects, including what is perhaps the oddest choice in recent memory: “Portrait of Madame Paul Duchesne-Fournet,” by the forgotten academic painter Jean-Jacques Henner (pictured left). It’s the type of painting that most museums today have in storage, if they haven’t already deaccessioned it as it does not fit in with the public’s conception of painting in France at the end of the 19th century which is generally either Impressionism or Bouguereau.
Such was the case with the only expensive Henner to sell at auction in recent years, a sensual “Mary Magdelene” that sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $57,000 against a $25,000 to $35,000 estimate (pictured right). That piece has been let go from a museum's collection not once, but twice. It was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1891 by Sarah M. Hitchcock, and in 1928 left the collection. It went through five intermediaries in the next two years until landing in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art where it remained until it was deaccessioned with several other European paintings in 2007. The picture was last shown in Toledo in 2005, in the exhibit, "The Unseen Art of TMA: What's in the Vaults and Why?"
First of all, I have not seen LACMA's new Henner in person nor did I have any knowledge of it during my time at Christie’s 19th Century European Paintings department. However, for the $335,000 price tag, I would have loved to have seen the curator’s performance, described as "memorable," on why LACMA had to have this piece, because from both a historic and aesthetic perspective, the picture seems a curious choice.
Click the Read More below for the rest of the article.
Henner and the academic tradition
In LACMA’s Unframed blog, Curator J. Patrice Marandel is quoted as stating, “Among the portrait painters of his generation, Henner developed a distinctive style. Less voluptuous than Carlous-Duran’s but more spirited than Leon Bonnat’s, Henner’s portraits were particularly appealing to a clientele eager to display in a dignified manner their newly acquired wealth and social rank.” The best talking point for the picture from the curator is not the quality itself, but that Henner charged his subject 10,000 francs for the picture.
An essay in The Collector and Art Critic, Vol. 3, No. 11 from September 1905, notes that “Henner is noted for his deadly coloring in his women’s faces, making them look like opium or arsenic victims; for his elusive outline and the russet hair of his models. His best part is the richness of his color, distinguished by the florid beauty of chromatic opposites…he may have often repeated the same note, yet his sonnets in paint were always tuneful and harmonious.” If the deadly coloring of an arsenic victim is indeed Henner's trademark, then LACMA's picture is at least typical in that regard.
Likely part of the presentation compared the work to John Singer Sargent's great "Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)" of 1883-4 in the Metropolitan Museum, although the Henner lacks nearly all the elements that makes the Sargent so striking (and so daring).
As the witty and dead-on blog “LACMA on Fire” pointed out, when American museums have Henners, they’re not by choice, rather “They were given them long ago, after the death of the aristocratic sitters.” The anonymous author of that blog suggests that the impetus for the Henner's acquisition came from a Dia Foundation-organized show that traveled to LACMA in 2008 where artist Francis Alys collected around 300 copies of Saint Fabiola, a “once-famous, now lost, painting by Henner” (image of the show pictured, right). The show was described as a “clever postmodern Alys goofing off poor academic Henner, butt of a joke he’d n ever understand.”
Henner’s market and comparables
The auction market for Henner works is heavily skewed towards the bottom, with works of questionable authenticity, poor-condition or incompleteness selling frequently at regional auctions for $5,000 to $15,000. An example of a nicer “cheap” Henner is this “Portrait of Young Woman” that sold at Piasa for $8,250 against an estimate of around $2,000 to $3,000 (pictured right, top). Occasionally an example of almost comically low quality pops up at a smaller auction house, such as the picture “Red and Blue” that showed up at James D. Julia and sold for $1,380 against an $800 to $1,200 estimate in 2009 (pictured right, lower).
Looking at peer artists like Charles Carolus-Duran finds another large nearly two meter high portrait that sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $45,000 against a $30,000 to $40,000 estimate (pictured below left). It’s a bit sexier than the new LACMA piece. A large Leon Bonnat genre painting, “The Broken Pitcher” sold at Christie’s New York for $180,000 against a $100,000 to $150,000 estimate, but it too had a greater decorative quality. A beautiful and large Leon Perrault, “The Young Seamstress” sold at Sotheby’s New York for $144,000 against an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. But like the Bonnat, it was pretty and decorative.
The closest auction comparable from recent memory is a large portrait by the French society artist Jacques Emile Blanche, of similar size, but more animated in the composition with a real personality behind the sitter. “Portrait of the Comtesse de Greffuhle” went unsold at an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.
There is a near total-absence of comparable prices for large academic portraits, as most sellers are unprepared to accept the generally low estimates that have to accompany these pictures to make them sell at auction. The aggressive estimate on the Blanche effectively killed all interest in the piece.
Thus, those looking to value these large academic portraits are left with few comps, instead relying on instinct and a perception of quality. It will be interesting to see how the new work is displayed, and in what context.
************************
About the author: Steve Roach is an independent appraiser and attorney in Dallas, Texas. He was formerly a specialist at Christie's 19th century European paintings department and now assists clients with the acquisition, liquidation and valuation of Old Master to Modern paintings, contemporary art and rare coins. Visit him online at www.steveroachonline.com.
By Steve Roach
First published in Steve Roach and the art of law
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a clever way of selecting and funding some of the art for its collection. Each year it hosts a Collectors Committee event, where donors pool resources to purchase works for the collection. Curators from the various departments present works, giving short but passionate presentations on the object’s importance, condition and its place in the collection.The members come together for dinner and vote on which pieces to acquire. The 2010 event raised more than $2 million dollars, and purchased some great objects, including what is perhaps the oddest choice in recent memory: “Portrait of Madame Paul Duchesne-Fournet,” by the forgotten academic painter Jean-Jacques Henner (pictured left). It’s the type of painting that most museums today have in storage, if they haven’t already deaccessioned it as it does not fit in with the public’s conception of painting in France at the end of the 19th century which is generally either Impressionism or Bouguereau.
Such was the case with the only expensive Henner to sell at auction in recent years, a sensual “Mary Magdelene” that sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $57,000 against a $25,000 to $35,000 estimate (pictured right). That piece has been let go from a museum's collection not once, but twice. It was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1891 by Sarah M. Hitchcock, and in 1928 left the collection. It went through five intermediaries in the next two years until landing in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art where it remained until it was deaccessioned with several other European paintings in 2007. The picture was last shown in Toledo in 2005, in the exhibit, "The Unseen Art of TMA: What's in the Vaults and Why?"First of all, I have not seen LACMA's new Henner in person nor did I have any knowledge of it during my time at Christie’s 19th Century European Paintings department. However, for the $335,000 price tag, I would have loved to have seen the curator’s performance, described as "memorable," on why LACMA had to have this piece, because from both a historic and aesthetic perspective, the picture seems a curious choice.
Click the Read More below for the rest of the article.
Henner and the academic tradition
In LACMA’s Unframed blog, Curator J. Patrice Marandel is quoted as stating, “Among the portrait painters of his generation, Henner developed a distinctive style. Less voluptuous than Carlous-Duran’s but more spirited than Leon Bonnat’s, Henner’s portraits were particularly appealing to a clientele eager to display in a dignified manner their newly acquired wealth and social rank.” The best talking point for the picture from the curator is not the quality itself, but that Henner charged his subject 10,000 francs for the picture.An essay in The Collector and Art Critic, Vol. 3, No. 11 from September 1905, notes that “Henner is noted for his deadly coloring in his women’s faces, making them look like opium or arsenic victims; for his elusive outline and the russet hair of his models. His best part is the richness of his color, distinguished by the florid beauty of chromatic opposites…he may have often repeated the same note, yet his sonnets in paint were always tuneful and harmonious.” If the deadly coloring of an arsenic victim is indeed Henner's trademark, then LACMA's picture is at least typical in that regard.
Likely part of the presentation compared the work to John Singer Sargent's great "Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)" of 1883-4 in the Metropolitan Museum, although the Henner lacks nearly all the elements that makes the Sargent so striking (and so daring).
As the witty and dead-on blog “LACMA on Fire” pointed out, when American museums have Henners, they’re not by choice, rather “They were given them long ago, after the death of the aristocratic sitters.” The anonymous author of that blog suggests that the impetus for the Henner's acquisition came from a Dia Foundation-organized show that traveled to LACMA in 2008 where artist Francis Alys collected around 300 copies of Saint Fabiola, a “once-famous, now lost, painting by Henner” (image of the show pictured, right). The show was described as a “clever postmodern Alys goofing off poor academic Henner, butt of a joke he’d n ever understand.”Henner’s market and comparables
The auction market for Henner works is heavily skewed towards the bottom, with works of questionable authenticity, poor-condition or incompleteness selling frequently at regional auctions for $5,000 to $15,000. An example of a nicer “cheap” Henner is this “Portrait of Young Woman” that sold at Piasa for $8,250 against an estimate of around $2,000 to $3,000 (pictured right, top). Occasionally an example of almost comically low quality pops up at a smaller auction house, such as the picture “Red and Blue” that showed up at James D. Julia and sold for $1,380 against an $800 to $1,200 estimate in 2009 (pictured right, lower).
Looking at peer artists like Charles Carolus-Duran finds another large nearly two meter high portrait that sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $45,000 against a $30,000 to $40,000 estimate (pictured below left). It’s a bit sexier than the new LACMA piece. A large Leon Bonnat genre painting, “The Broken Pitcher” sold at Christie’s New York for $180,000 against a $100,000 to $150,000 estimate, but it too had a greater decorative quality. A beautiful and large Leon Perrault, “The Young Seamstress” sold at Sotheby’s New York for $144,000 against an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. But like the Bonnat, it was pretty and decorative.
The closest auction comparable from recent memory is a large portrait by the French society artist Jacques Emile Blanche, of similar size, but more animated in the composition with a real personality behind the sitter. “Portrait of the Comtesse de Greffuhle” went unsold at an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. There is a near total-absence of comparable prices for large academic portraits, as most sellers are unprepared to accept the generally low estimates that have to accompany these pictures to make them sell at auction. The aggressive estimate on the Blanche effectively killed all interest in the piece.
Thus, those looking to value these large academic portraits are left with few comps, instead relying on instinct and a perception of quality. It will be interesting to see how the new work is displayed, and in what context.
************************
About the author: Steve Roach is an independent appraiser and attorney in Dallas, Texas. He was formerly a specialist at Christie's 19th century European paintings department and now assists clients with the acquisition, liquidation and valuation of Old Master to Modern paintings, contemporary art and rare coins. Visit him online at www.steveroachonline.com.
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seymourrenee Said,
I have a numbre print by J Henner "Fabiola". How can I find it's value?
Posted on May 3, 2011 4:22 PM