The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 21, 2024

Liberty

Liberty

1848–49
(French, 1814–1875)
Sheet: 47.2 x 31.7 cm (18 9/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

Liberty relates to Jean-François Millet's entrance into the 1848 competition for an official painted figure representing the second French Republic. Millet did not win the competition and his painted Republic no longer exists, but this representation of a related concept—liberty—was inspired by his contest participation. He also drew allegories of the other two fundamental concepts in French Republicanism: equality and fraternity.
  • ?-1908
    Quincy Adams Shaw [1825-1908], Boston, by descent within family
    1908-1939
    Family of Quincy Adams Shaw, Boston
    1939
    (Parke-Bernet, New York, Nov. 24, 1939, no. 12)
    ?-1976
    Beatrice H. Shore, New York, sold to Shepherd Gallery, New York
    1976-
    (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)
    1976-2008
    Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    2008-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Parke Bernet Galleries, New York. Property of Robert Cluett, Jr., J. Theus Munds, John P. Grier, and Other Owners. November 24, 1939. Lot 12. Mentioned: p. 3, no. 12
    Shepherd Gallery. Non-Dissenters Fifth Exhibition: One Hundred and Seventy French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors. Exh. Cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1976. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 130
    Masheck, Joseph, "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: New York," Burlington Magazine 119, no. 889 (April 1977), 307-308. Mentioned: p. 308
    Toussaint, Hélène. "Le Réalisme de Courbet au service de la satire politique et de la propagande gouvernementale," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français (1979), 233-244. Mentioned: 238, 244, no. 16
    Laughton, Bruce, The Drawings of Daumier and Millet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. Mentioned: p. 66; Reproduced: p. 67, fig. 5.19
    Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: cat. no. 35, p. 80-81; Reproduced: p. 81
  • French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).
    Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (before 1939).
    Non-Dissenters: Fifth Exhibition Marking Our Tenth Anniversary. Shepherd Gallery, New York (November 1-December 31, 1976).
  • {{cite web|title=Liberty|url=false|author=Jean-François Millet|year=1848–49|access-date=21 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.395