European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing Made in France1891 Alfred Sisley, French, 1839 - 1899 Oil on canvas Currently not on view 1978-1-29 Bequest of Charlotte Dorrance Wright, 1978 |
ProvenancePrivate collection, Germany [1]; with Galerie Georges Petit, Paris [2]; with Bernheim-Jeune, Paris; Baron Kojiro Matsukata (1865-1950), Paris and Kobe, Japan, probably by 1934 and possibly still in 1947 [3]. Wildenstein & Co., Paris and New York; sold to Mr. and Mrs. William Coxe Wright, St. David's, PA, April 30, 1957, until his d. 1970 [4]; Charlotte Dorrance Wright (Mrs. William Coxe Wright) (d. 1977); bequest to PMA, 1978. 1. Note in curatorial file. 2. Information from Frick Library photo archives. 3. Bernheim-Jeune and Matsukata provenance names per Daulte, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1959 (no. 779). The painting is said to have been lent to a 1934 exhibition "Exposition du Japon," at the Musée Rodin, presumably by Matsukata (cited in exhibition catalogue, San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, "The Collection of Mr and Mrs William Coxe Wright," August 28-September 26, 1965, no. 28). Matsukata formed his collection of modern French art, particularly Rodin, from 1916 to about 1935. After 1921 most of the artworks that he bought in Paris were stored long-term at the Musée Rodin awaiting the construction of Matsukata's proposed museum of Western art in Japan. The collection was sequestered by the French government at the end of WWII as enemy property (see Haru Matsukata Reischauer, Samurai and Silk, London, 1986, p. 290-297, and Christina Buley-Uribe, "Matsukata et le musée Rodin: avatars d'une collection," in Rodin et le Japon, Tokyo, 2001). Most of the collection was eventually repatriated to Japan in 1959, with part being retained for the French national collections. This painting does not appear in a 1938 inventory of Matsukata's collection stored at the Musée Rodin, nor was it included in the sale of sequestered works from Matsukata's collection, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 21, 1947. Thus it may have been one of the works that Matsukata sent to Japan in the 1930's to be sold to pay off debts. He may have still have been the owner in 1947 when the painting was published in Les trésors de l'art moderne, Tokyo, 1947. 4. Information from 1977 Dorrance Wright estate inventory by Carroll Hogan (registrar file). |
