About This Artwork

Jean Antoine Houdon
French, 1741-1828

Bust of Anne-Marie-Louise Thomas de Domangeville de Sérilly, Comtesse de Pange, 1780

Marble
35 1/4 in. (89.9 cm)
Signed and dated on undercut of left shoulder: HOUDON F. 1780
Through prior acquisitions of the George F. Harding Collection; the Lacy Armour, Harry and Maribel G. Blum Foundation, Richard T. Crane, Jr. and European Decorative Arts Purchase endowments; Eloise W. Martin and European Decorative Arts Purchase funds; restricted gift of the Woman's Board in honor of Gloria Gottlieb and Mrs. Eric Oldberg; through prior acquisitions of Robert Allerton, Mary and Leigh Block, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrew Brown, Miss Janet Falk, J.S. Landon Fund, Brooks and Hope B. McCormick, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Regenstein, Sr., Mrs. Florene Schoenborn, and the Solomon A. Smith Charitable Trust through the Antiquarian Society, 1996.79

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Publication History

Nathaniel de Rothschild, Notizen über einige meiner Kunstgegenstände (Vienna, 1899 and 1903), p. 17, no. 32.

Louis Réau, "A Great French Sculptor of the Eighteenth Century: Jean-Antoine Houdon," Connoisseur 121, 508 (1948), pp. 75 (ill.), 77.

F. J. B. Watson, "The Nation’s Treasures: The Wallace Collection," Studio 137, 673 (1949), p. 105 (ill.).

Ann Hill, "The Boudoir of Madame de Sérilly," Apollo 64, 377 (1956), pp. 8–11, fig. 1.

Louis Réau, Houdon: sa vie et son oeuvre 2 (Paris, 1964), no. 174.

H. H. Arnason, The Sculpture of Houdon (New York, 1975), p. 113, no. 151.

Ian Wardropper, "Collecting European Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago," Apollo 154, 475 (2001), pp. 8–9, fig. 11.

Ghenete Zelleke, "Gifts Beyond Measure," Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 28, 2 (2002), pp. 86–87, no. 54 (ill.).

Ownership History

Commissioned by the sitter Anne-Marie-Louise Thomas de Domangeville de Sérilly (later Comtesse de Pange, died, 1799) upon the occasion of her marriage to her cousin, Antoine-Jean- François Mégret de Sérilly, baron de Theil, trésorier-payeur général des dépenses guerre (died, 1794), Paris, 1780. Confiscated by the Revolutionary Tribunal, 1794 [see anonymous, untitled treatise in curatorial file]. Reclaimed by the sitter, la comtesse de Pange, 1796 [see the same anonymous, untitled treatise]. By descent to the heirs of la comtesse de Pange, Passy-sur-Yonne [see the same anonymous, untitled treatise]. Nathaniel de Rothschild, Vienna, by 1899 [see Rothschild, 1903, p. 17, no. 32]. By descent to his nephew, Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, Vienna, 1905 [see dealer information and anonymous, untitled treatise in curatorial file and Apollo, p. 12, n. 10]. Confiscated by the Nazis for Hitler’s projected museum at Linz, 1938 [see dealer information and anonymous, untitled treatise in curatorial file and Apollo, p. 12, n. 10]. Restituted to Baroness Clarice de Rothschild, Alphonse’s widow, from the Altaussee, Austria salt mines, 1947 [see dealer information, an anonymous, untitled treatise and copy of letter from Clarice de Rothschild to Saemy Rosenberg in curatorial file and Apollo, p. 12, n. 10]. Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, 1947. Private collection, U.S.A., ???? [see dealer information in curatorial file]. Jean Montague Massengale, Norton Connecticut, ???? [see dealer information in curatorial file]. By descent to John E. Massengale, III and the Jean Montague Massengale Charitable Trust, ???? [see dealer information in curatorial file]. Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, 1996.