What is art provenance? A Getty Research Institute case study

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0:00:06.9 Dr. Steven Zucker: At the top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles is the Getty Center. And one of the buildings is the Getty Research Institute. It’s an amazing place because not only does it hold works of art, but it holds extensive archives. And one of the most interesting projects is the Getty Provenance Index. So the question then is, what is provenance?

0:00:27.9 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: Provenance is the history of objects. So provenance researchers investigate how objects move, change hands, change ownership from the moment they’re created, all the stops of the artwork along the way, until its present location.

0:00:42.2 Dr. Steven Zucker: So we thought we would trace one particular painting that is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is by an extremely famous 19th-century French artist, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Lion on the Watch. It shows this enormous African lion standing on a rock, his haunch is up, and he’s looking out as if looking out at his domain. And Gérôme, who was an academic artist in the 19th century, has a long history of painting African animals. In fact, he traveled to Africa and sketched animals like this. Gérôme was one of the elite artists of the 19th century. That is, he became very wealthy as a result of his art, which was extremely popular.

0:01:24.5 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: He taught at the Académie, exhibited his paintings at the Salon, which was the primary place for exhibiting paintings by painters recognized by France as the preeminent painters. And he had a huge following.

0:01:37.2 Dr. Steven Zucker: And so the question is, how does it get from the artist’s studio to where it is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art?

0:01:44.1 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: Behind that story is a relationship between Gérôme, the painter, and a preeminent art dealer and publisher, Adolphe Goupil. Goupil established profitable relationships with painters. They acquired the rights to reproduce paintings that they acquired.

0:02:00.1 Dr. Steven Zucker: If we visited the Cleveland Museum of Art, and if this painting was up on the wall, there would be a small label next to it, and it would likely have the artist, the title, its date, that it’s an oil on wood panel. And it might also say how the painting got to the museum. And in this case, it would say, gift of Mrs. F. W. Gehring, in memory of her husband, F. W. Gehring, and that it was acquired in 1945.

0:02:25.6 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: We know how this painting arrived in the United States, and it was through a dealership house called Michael Knoedler & Company. They were the successors of Maison Goupil.

0:02:35.6 Dr. Steven Zucker: So we’ve opened up one of the stock books, and I’m seeing this beautiful 19th-century handwriting.

0:02:42.1 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: At the top, you see New York, February 1st, 1901, and you see the number 1327 MK & Co, so that would be Michael Knoedler & Company, Paris February 7, I believe, 01, so 1901. And just underneath, you see the number 9379, J. L. Gérôme. Another number, 2645. Lion on the Watch. That’s our painting. The 9379 is a stock number assigned by Knoedler when they received the painting from their branch in Paris. And they acquired it for 4,000 francs directly from the painter Gérôme. And just before that, you see in small notation, $920. That would have been the equivalent.

0:03:27.5 Dr. Steven Zucker: So the Paris office has purchased the painting directly from the artist’s studio, and then the New York office has taken over the painting from the Paris office. It’s now in New York, and it is sitting in their inventory. Michael Knoedler now wants to sell this.

0:03:41.6 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: So in this case, we don’t have a buyer next to this entry for the Gérôme painting. And that’s because they retake inventory a few months later in April 30th of 1901. Gérôme J. L., Lion on the Watch. And here they record $920 as the value. And we can read that in May 1904, F. W. Gehring from Cleveland purchased the painting for $2,500.

0:04:06.0 Dr. Steven Zucker: So Knoedler held onto the painting for three years until he found the right buyer and the man who stepped forward, F. W. Gehring, was the son of a beer entrepreneur in Cleveland. He had been a German immigrant, had come and established a brewery, which grew and prospered and allowed his son ultimately to become an art collector. And so we see that Knoedler, within only three years, has made a very handsome profit. Knoedler would have been aware that the market was weakening for Gérôme’s work. 2,500 wasn’t much for a Gérôme, whose work had fetched as much as 10,000.

0:04:42.3 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: That kind of information was probably only known by dealers such as Knoedler.

0:04:47.3 Dr. Steven Zucker: In addition to the ledgers, the Getty Research Institute also has correspondence that the Knoedler Gallery kept.

0:04:53.7 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: In this letter, dated April 19th to Gehring from Knoedler. This is a letter where you can see how Knoedler is approaching Gehring, proposing paintings, including the painting by Gérôme, offering these paintings and explaining that these prices were very reasonable. And as a matter of fact, if you buy one of these paintings, and between now and in five years, if you don’t like them, you can always return them. What’s also interesting is that they are saying that the price they want for the Gérôme painting is not only reasonable, but they actually would like to charge even more, because, as they say, the death of Gérôme, which happened earlier that year, would be perfectly justified for them in raising the price for it. And you can see in blue pen, there’s a 0, a slash, and an 83. That means that there’s no earlier letter in this book connected to Gehring. And the next folio 83, is the next letter to Gehring.

0:05:48.6 Dr. Steven Zucker: The next letter that we see is April. And here we have Knoedler offering to ship the paintings at no cost and even offering to send an employee to show where the painting could be hung to best advantage and how the lighting could be best handled. So really wonderful customer service. And clearly this worked because the purchase was completed.

0:06:08.2 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: So the next letter is when Knoedler writes with delight that Gehring has actually chosen to purchase the Gérôme painting. And this is really the beginning of that relationship.

0:06:20.6 Dr. Steven Zucker: And then in a letter dated May 10, 1904, Knoedler writes to Gehring that he hopes that the Gérôme has reached him safely. But then I love the second sentence, “We think you made a very wise decision in purchasing this work, as aside from its artistic merit and attractiveness, it is a first-class investment, and this picture should increase materially in value in the next few years.”

0:06:45.0 Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven: May 12th is when they concluded the transaction. The check came after, and that completely sealed the whole deal.

0:06:52.9 Dr. Steven Zucker: And so we have the complete arc of this transaction from the purchase, first from the artist’s studio in Paris through to the receipt of the check that had been sent from Cleveland to the New York office. Mr. Gehring passed away, and his widow hung onto the painting until 1945, when she donated it to the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is such an incredible window into an aspect of art history that we too often overlook. And I just want to thank you for walking us through these pages that may look a little cryptic to our 21st-century eyes, but open up the art world in really remarkable ways.

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