The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

Jacques Dumont, called Le Romain

Jacques Dumont, called Le Romain

c. 1742
(French, 1704–1788)
France, 18th century
black and white chalk with pastel
Sheet: 30.8 x 20.8 cm (12 1/8 x 8 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1983.89
Catalogue raisonné: Besnard 119
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing resembles two pastel portraits that Maurice Quentin de La Tour made of Jacques Dumont during the 1740s, but one work shows the sitter about to paint, while the other shows him playing a guitar.

Description

Maurice Quentin de La Tour specialized in portraiture, and was praised by his contemporaries for creating uncanny likenesses of his sitters. He often created these works using pastel, a rich and powdery drawing material. He took up the technique for this quickly drawn sketch, created directly in front of his friend, the painter Jacques Dumont. La Tour used the drawing as a guide for Dumont's face in two different large-scale portraits in pastel, one of which is in the Louvre in Paris. During the 1800s this sheet was owned by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, the brothers who, as writers and intellectuals, championed the art of 18th-century France and helped to revive interest in La Tour and other artists from that period.
  • ?-1875
    Camille Marcille [1815-1875], Gasville-Oisème
    1876
    (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Tableaux et dessins formant la collection de feu M. Camille Marcille, March 6-7, 1876, no. 152)
    1876-?
    "Groult"
    ?-1897
    Edmond and Jules de Goncourt [1822-1896 and 1830-1870; Lugt 1089], Draveil and Neuilly-Auteuil-Passy
    1897
    (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Goncourt sale, February 15-17, 1897, no. 157)
    1897-?
    Marius Paulme [1863-1928; Lugt 1910], Paris
    ?-1914
    Guillaume de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Biron [1859-1939], Dordogne
    1914
    (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection du Marquis de Biron, première vente..., June 9-11, 1914, no. 38)
    1914-1920
    Gaston Le Breton [1845-1920], Rouen
    1921
    (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Le Breton sale, December 6-8, 1921, no. 91, sold to Ducrey)
    1921-by 1935
    Ducrey collection
    by 1935-by 1982
    Private collection ("Mme X")
    1982
    (Sotheby's, London, Old Master Drawings, November 18,1982, no. 50)
    1982-1983
    (Société Artemis, Paris)
    1983
    (David Carritt, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1983-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 As "Portrait de Dumont le Romain. Il est vu de trois quarts, regardant à droite, et coiffé d'un fichu noué au haut du front. Dessin sur papier bleu au crayon noire rehaussé de blanc. H., om, 30. L., om, 20."
    2 Purchased from Drouot sale for 300 F by this seller, according to annotated copy of sale catalogue at Frick Library, New York.
    3 As  "Il est vu de trois quarts, tourné à droite, un mazulipatan noué sur la tête. Préparation sur papier bleu, aux trois crayons."
    4 Purchased for 2,100 F, according to annotated catalogue.
    5 Reproduced in sale catalogue, no. 38. Sold for 11,500 F.
    6 Reproduced in sale catalogue, plate IX.
    7 Sold for 14,000 F, according to Launay 1991.
    8  Listed as "A Mme X," in Copenhagen 1935, 86, no. 276.
    9 Reproduced in sale catalogue, p. 43.
    10 Purchased for £12,320, according to Launay 1991.
  • Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. "La Tour (2e et dernier article)."Gazette des Beaux-Arts 22, no. 3 (April 1867): 350-371. Mentioned: p. 359
    Burty, Philippe. Eaux-Fortes de Jules de Goncourt. Paris: Librairie de l'art, 1876. Mentioned: p. 3, under no. 11
    Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. L'Art du dix-huitième siècle. Paris: A. Quantin, 1880. Mentioned: p. 285
    Goncourt, Edmond de. La Maison d'un artiste. Paris: G. Charpentier, 1881. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 103
    Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. L'Art du XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Bibliothèque Charpentier, 1902. Mentioned: vol. 1, pp. 408-409
    Bautier, Pierre. "Le Carnet d'un curieux: Trois portraits de Jacques-Jean Dumont, dit le Romain, peintre et graveur, par Maurice Quentin De La Tour." La Renaissance de l'art français et des industriels de luxe 4, no. 7 (July 1921): 7-8. Mentioned: pp. 7-8; Reproduced: p. 7
    Besnard, Albert. La Tour: La vie et l'oeuvre de l'artiste. Paris: Les Beaux-Arts, 1928. Mentioned: p. 140, no. 119; Reproduced: plate CXI
    Bouchot-Saupique, Jacqueline. Musée national du Louvre, catalogue des pastels. Paris: Musées nationaux, 1930. Mentioned: p. 30, under no. 44
    Roustan, M. Mario. Exposition de l'art français au XVIIIe siècle. Exh. Cat. Copenhagen: Palais de Charlottenborg, 1935. Mentioned: no. 276
    Pastels français des collections nationales et du Musée La Tour de Saint-Quentin. Exh. Cat. Paris: Orangerie des Tuileries, 1949. Mentioned: p. 18, under no. 32
    Bury, Adrian. Maurice-Quentin de La Tour: The Greatest Pastel Portraitist. London: Charles Skilton, 1971. Mentioned: under plate 49
    Monnier, Geneviève. Inventaire des collections publiques françaises, Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des dessins, Pastels XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles. Paris: Éditions des musées nationaux, 1972. Mentioned: under no. 64
    Richards, Louise S. "A Study for a Pastel Portrait of Jacques Dumont Le Romain by Maurice Quentin de La Tour." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (December 1984): 341-347. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 341-347
    Launay, Élisabeth. Les frères Goncourt, collectionneurs de dessins. Paris: Arthena, 1991. Mentioned: pp. 66, 86, 350-351, no. 173; Reproduced: p. 66
    Wintermute, Alan. The French Portrait, 1550-1850. Exh. Cat. New York: Colnaghi, 1996. Mentioned: p. 95, under plate 9
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 106-107, p. 288, no. 39; Reproduced: p. 107
    Prat, Louis-Antoine. Le dessin français au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Louvre éditions: Somogy, 2017. p. 228 Reproduced: p. 228, no. 388
    Salmon, Xavier. Pastels in the Musée du Louvre: 17th and 18th Centuries.
    Paris: Hazan; Louvre editions, 2018. Mentioned: p. 169; reproduced: p. 170, fig. 36
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).
    The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    Exposition de l'art français au XVIIIe siècle. Charlottenborg Palace, Copenhagen (1935).
  • {{cite web|title=Jacques Dumont, called Le Romain|url=false|author=Maurice Quentin de La Tour|year=c. 1742|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1983.89