Jean Baptiste Greuze

(Tournus 1725-1805 Paris)

Portrait of Jeanne Philiberte Ledoux (1767–1840), half-length, in a white dress with a blue shawl, and holding a garland of flowers

Footnotes

Provenance
E. Secrétan, Paris
His sale, Paris, 1 July 1889, lot 121 (FF 10,900), where acquired by
With Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris
(Probably) Yolande Lyne Stephens, London
Her sale, London, 9-17 May 1895, lot 356
James Simon, Berlin
With Knoedler, New York
With Wildenstein, New York, 1929
Henry E. Stehli, New York, by whom offered
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 30 November 1950, lot 18
With Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, where acquired on 10 September 1962 by
Dr. and Mrs. James H. Semans, Durham, North Carolina, by whom gifted on 29 December 1981
Duke-Semans Fine Arts Foundation, Durham, North Carolina

Exhibited
Paris, Sedelmeyer Gallery, 300 Paintings by Old Masters, 1898, no. 269
New York, Wildenstein, March-April 1929, no. 16
Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Art Museum, European and American Art from Princeton Alumni Collections, 7 May - 11 June 1972, no. 24
Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Antheneum; San Francisco, the Legion of Honor; Dijon, Musée des Beaux Arts, Jean Baptise Greuze: 1725-1805, 1 December 1976 - 7 August 1977, no. 103
Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 1981
Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Museum of Art, late 2000 - early 2001
Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Museum of Art, 17th and 18th Century European Art at the Nasher Museum, 19 December 2009 - 18 July 2010
Durham, North Carolina, North Carolina Central University, January - June 2013 (loan overseen by the Nasher Museum)
Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, The Human Position: Old Master Works from the Collection, 20 June - 18 August 2013
Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, May 2016

Literature
C. Sedelmeyer, Illustrated catalogue of 300 paintings by old masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English schools, being some of the principal pictures which have at various times formed part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, 1898, no. 269
J. Martin and C. Masson, Catalogue Raisonné de L'Oeuvre Peint et Dessiné de Jean Baptiste Greuze, Rapilly, 1908, p. 73, no. 1178

Jeanne-Philiberte Ledoux (1767–1840) was born in Paris, the daughter of the architect and writer Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. She was a painter and pupil of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Her work was first seen in public in 1793, when she showed three paintings in the Paris Salon: Painting at Rest, Little Girls at a Crossroads, and Concealed Love. She is known for miniatures and portraits and was a frequent exhibitor until 1819. Since Ledoux never exhibited any large history paintings or portraits of notables, it is assumed that she enjoyed a modest career as a portraitist, catering to a middle-class clientele (see Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists 1550–1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Knopf, 1976).