After Thomas Lawrence (British, 1769-1830)

Portrait of Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
oil on canvas
unsigned, though previously attributed to Thomas Lawrence
34 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches.

together with CANOVA, Antonio. Autograph letter in Italian signed ("Antonio Canova"), to Cardinal Ercole CONSALVI (1757-1824), as Papal Secretary of State to Pope Pius VII. Paris, September 15, 1815. 3pp., folio. Regarding the restoration of various artworks taken by Napoleon from the Papal States, written by Canova in his capacity as Commissioner to the Pope.

Provenance:

Ex-collection, Henri Rochefort (1831-1913), Paris;

imported to New York and sold by Galerie Durand-Ruel, New York City, New York;

Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905), an American actor, author, and prominent art collector;

sold at public auction by the American Art Association, The Valuable Paintings Collected by the Late Joseph Jefferson, Mendelssohn Hall, New York City, New York, April 27, 1906, Lot 56;

Max Saffron, New York City, New York;

given by the above to the present owner, April 1971.

ALS acquired by Théodore Tausky Autographes, Paris;

ex-collection, Dr. Max Thorek (1880-1960), Chicago, Illinois.

Literature:

The Valuable Paintings Collected by the Late Joseph Jefferson (New York City, New York: J. J. Little and Co., 1906), cat. no. 56, p. 71.

Pope Pius VII tasked Canova with negotiating the restitution of various Vatican artifacts and artworks looted by Napoleon Bonaparte, 1797-1815. As part of this assignment, Canova traveled from Rome to Paris and London in 1815, and while in London, he posed for Thomas Lawrence, who exhibited the resulting portrait at the Royal Academy in 1816. Lawrence reworked the portrait during a second sitting in Rome in 1819, and at least four versions of this portrait are known to exist, held by the USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina; the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan; and the Gypsotheca e Museo Antonio Canova, Possagno, Italy.

As part of his own research, Fleischmann sent photos of this painting to Richard Allen, Director of Sotheby's in Chester, who in turn shared them with colleague Paddy Bowring. In a letter to Fleischmann dated November 22, 1990, Allen relates that the numerous copies of this portrait by both Lawrence and others complicate the work's attribution. However, their connoisseurial eyes conclude that this portrait "is not good enough to be by Lawrence himself [and] is likely by a contemporary hand. . . the general feeling is that it is not by the master."