Viewing page 52 of 144

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

WELbeck {0687, 0688
    
THE WALLACE COLLECTION
MANCHESTER SQUARE
LONDON, W.1

27th October 1959

Dear Mr. Seligman,
I was sorry you did not come to London at the end of your summer vacation, as it would have been pleasant to have renewed our acquaintance once again.

I am most intrigued with what you tell me about the statue by Lemony described as representing Madame de Pompadour and dated 1744, which was at Bagatelle.  There is a bust of Madame de Pompadour by Lemoyne at Waddesdon, but this is signed and dated 1761.  Unless therefore there is some mistake in the transcription of the date, they cannot be identical. It occurs to me, however, that the statue in question may have been Pigalle's allegorical figure of L'Amité, where friendship was shown under the guise of Madae de Pompadour. This was certainly in Lord Hartford's possession at Bagatelle.  Later it went to Baron Edmond de Rothschild at Ferriéres, and now I imagine belongs to Baron Maurice's heir.  This piece of sculpture is life size and is signed and dated 1753.  There is no recorded Lemoyne of her as early as 1744, which was when her liaison with Louis XV was just beginning.

I am also interested in what you have to say about our Bouchers. Certainly some of them came from Madame de Pompadour, notably the two huge pictures of the Rising and the Setting of the Sun, which you will remember hanging on the Grand Staircase here. What I should like to find is evidence that the four smaller allegorical pictures representing various episodes in the life of Venus (they are Nos. 429, 432, 438 and 444 in the Wallace Collection Picture Catalogue) really belonged to Madame de Pompadour also.  Traditionally they are said to have come from her boudoir at the Hôtel de l'Arsenal, but the evidence for this seems very shaky indeed, and goes back no further than the middle of the XIXth century. In addition,I have been unable to find any evidence that she ever had any apartments at the Arsenal. If you can find anything in your wonderful inventory which casts light on this question I should be most grateful to hear it. 

Over /

Mr. Germain Seligman
5 East 57th Street
New York 22, N.Y.