A brief description by a friend, Bishop Lawrence, gives an idea of how
the collections were displayed at Princes Gate:
Glancing at two glorious Turners, one at each side of the large door,
we passed into the next room, a perfect example of Louis XVI, walls, rugs,
furniture and ornaments of the richest of that day. Across the hall ... we entered
the Fragonard Room, whose walls were drawn in by the builder to meet the exact
dimension and designs of the panels. In the centre stood a table covered with a
glass cabinet filled with beautiful jewelled boxes. A glimpse of the portrait of the
most attractive boy that one has ever seen, probably by Velasquez, drew one into
the Louis XV Room, where were beautiful cabinets and examples of Sevres.3
Morgan’s interest in the French ancien régime was not confined to works
of art, but extended to historical material, including autograph letters by Madame de
Maintenon, Madame de Pompadour, Marie-Antoinette, as well as marriage contracts for
the French kings from Louis XIII to Louis XVIII.4
It is difficult to document Morgan’s collecting before 1896, as invoices for his purchases
do not survive before that year. Furthermore, few letters from Morgan survive, so there is
little written evidence of his tastes and motivations. Still, much can be gleaned not only
from the invoices from dealers, but also from the collections themselves. Among the
dealers he bought French porcelain from were Durlacher Brothers, Cartier et Fils, Charles
Wertheimer, Jacques Seligmann, A.B. Daniell & Sons, Duveen Brothers, and Edouard
Chappey. Occasionally he bought at auction, usually through one of his favorite dealers.
He did not buy his French porcelain or furniture en bloc from earlier collectors. For
French porcelain he relied on the advice of the collector/dealer J.H. Fitzhenry, and the
scholar/collector the comte de Chavagnac.
Reviewing extant invoices and letters in the archives of the Morgan Library allows one to
track many of Morgan’s purchases over seventeen years, from 1896 until his death in
1913. According to a recent scholar, his love for French decorative arts seems to have
stemmed from the purchase of Fragonard’s panels known as The Progress of
Love, in 1898 (described by Bishop Lawrence above).5 In this year he
bought a Sèvres biscuit bust of Louis XVI for $125, and the following year a
Riesener commode and secrétaire from Duveen. In 1899 he also
spent a staggering £11,550 for the celebrated “Coventry Vases,” which included a
Sèvres pot-pourri à vaisseau (now at the J. Paul Getty Museum,
California), and a pair of vases hollandois (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).6
In 1900 Morgan bought the wonderful bleu turquin marble table by
Gouthière now in the Frick Collection,
New York.7 This same year he
bought three glazed white Vincennes figures of Le jaloux, Les mangeurs de
raisins, and Le flûteur for $2,500 (catalogue nos. 170-72). He also
bought the extraordinary Meissen basket with Vincennes flowers French ormolu
mounts (catalogue no. 55). Incorrectly thinking the mount had been re-gilded, Jacques
Seligmannn only charged him $500 for the ensemble. Again, in 1900, Morgan bought a
garniture of three bleu céleste vases hollandois with Teniers subjects by
the Sèvres painter Dodin for £8,000, and a Sèvres inkstand with celestial
and terrestrial globes and a bust in the center, for £132. He also bought a chinoiserie
figure from Cartier in Paris, then thought to be either Chantilly or Saint-Cloud, as well as
a Sèvres tray, two orange tubs, and a small, green-ground service. This is the year
that the Wallace Collection
at Hertford House, London opened to the public. Filled with paintings, tapestries,
Renaissance bronzes, maiolica, miniatures, arms and armor, gold- and silversmith’s
works, ivories, and eighteenth-century furniture and porcelain, this collection must also
have had a profound effect on Morgan.8
The year 1901 saw the purchase of French furniture, sculpture, gold boxes, and porcelain, along
with Meissen porcelain, Renaissance bronzes, Gainsborough’s Duchess of
Devonshire,9 and the Garland
collection of Chinese porcelain (for the Metropolitan Museum of Art).10 From Duveen came a yellow-ground tea service, as well as
other small pieces of Sèvres.11 The large pink-ground Sèvres déjeuner Courteille (catalogue no. 83) and the important
Vincennes pots-pourris à jour (catalogue no. 56)
were bought from A.B. Daniell, and Sons, London, the former for £2,145 and the latter for £2,200. From Cartier
in Paris came a number of pieces of French porcelain, from cups and saucers, toilet pots,
teapots, broth basins, trays, to a water jug and basin for 25,000 francs, and a five-piece
garniture (including the Atheneum’s bleu lapis vase hollandois and pots-pourris Pompadour, catalogue nos. 63-64) for 60,000 francs.12
During the same year Morgan also bought sculptures by Clodion, Houdon, Pigalle, and Falconet.13
Morgan’s collection of French decorative arts continued to grow in 1902, with the
purchase of a Louis XVI regulator clock from Seligmann, and pair of candelabra now
attributed to Thomire. Today they reside in the Frick Collection.14
From Duveen Morgan bought a number of pieces of Sèvres porcelain, including then popular
yellow and pink-ground objects.15 Cartier continued
to be one of his preferred sources for French porcelain, supplying Morgan with the white-ground chestnut basket in the Atheneum’s collection (catalogue no. 135), as well as a
large late tea service (catalogue no. 130). The large pair of vases ferrés
(catalogue no. 69) with a green ground and figures was bought from Charles Wertheimer
for $10,000.
Important pieces of French porcelain came into Morgan’s collection in 1903, including
the Vincennes fountain and basin (catalogue no. 151)
thought to have been bought by either the Dauphin or the Dauphine in 1756. This ensemble
was sold by Seligmann, along with a pair of vases à oreilles (catalogue no. 60), a bleu
céleste garniture of cuvettes à tombeau (catalogue no. 70),
and yellow-ground service pieces from the 1790s decorated with Buffon birds (catalogue
nos. 145-46). Cartier continued to furnish Morgan with Vincennes and Sèvres, as
well as a Mennecy group of musicians.16
The year 1904 was an important year for Morgan’s collection. At this time he doubled his
space at Princes Gate by buying the townhouse next door. From this time Morgan began
buying furniture with specific destinations for each piece, as well as the entire ensemble
in mind.17 During the next
two years he increased his expenditures markedly, in order to furnish the new addition.
The dealers Duveen and A.B. Daniell both helped, and their dual role is reflected in the
fact that Morgan had two accounts with Daniell, one for fine arts and one for household
items. A single invoice dated January 1906 from Duveen shows that Morgan spent more
than $131,000 over the course of 1905 with this dealer alone.18
An October 1906 bill from Duveen summarizing several earlier purchases is divided up room by room,
indicating that Morgan was thinking thematically about his new space, although an
examination of the specific purchases for each room reveal that there was little rigidity in
adhering to these themes.19 The “new French
rooms” included the Regency Room, the Louis XV Sitting Room, the Louis XVI
Drawing Room, the Louis XVI Room, the Louis XVI Marble Hall, and the Fragonard
Room.20
In the category of French porcelain, a number of objects were bought during these two
years. Domestic wares continued to enter the collection, as did decorative figures and
vases. In 1905 Morgan bought from J. & S. Goldschmidt in Frankfurt-am-Main the very
important mounted vase with the statuette of Louis XV inside (catalogue no. 65). This
object must not have been terribly fashionable for it only cost $1,500, compared to the
$18,500 for a “garniture” of three vases (vase Bachelier à anses
tortillées and two vases chinois, catalogue nos. 71-72) purchased from
Wertheimer in 1906. Morgan also began buying furniture with Sèvres plaques
during these years, which were destined for the Louis XVI drawing room.
An invoice from Duveen lists a writing table and two guéridons,21 and Werthheimer
sold him a small Louis XVI table and a tripod worktable with porcelain plaques as well.
22 Morgan seems to
have begun buying from the collector/dealer Edouard Chappey in 1904, and continued
with this dealer for the next two years. Among the pieces of French porcelain coming
from this source are the rare hard-paste Boy with a Tambourine (catalogue no.
178), the Vincennes biscuit L’Amitié au cœur (catalogue no. 176),
the white-ground déjeuner à baguettes with gold decoration (catalogue
no. 104), and the green inkstand from Madame de Pompadour’s collection (catalogue no.
152). In 1906 Morgan bought the Hoentschel Collection of French boiseries and
decorative furniture for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. This was meant to be the nucleus of a decorative arts collection for
the young museum.23
In 1907 Morgan did not seem to buy very much French furniture or porcelain, perhaps
due to his purchase of a group of paintings from the Rodolfe Kann collection for over
£225,000.24 In 1908 Morgan
bought the monumental white glazed porcelain bust of Louis XV made at
Chantilly (then attributed to Mennecy) for 25,300 francs (catalogue no. 20), and in 1909 a
pair of Chantilly candelabra, perhaps the Atheneum’s chinoiserie Puppeteers (catalogue
no. 18).
In 1910 Morgan published privately a catalogue of his French porcelain collection written
by one of the leading experts on the subject, the comte de Chavagnac. According to
Bishop Lawrence, Chavagnac was told to sell any piece that was not of the rarest quality.25
This same year he bought the Gaston Lebreton faïence collection for the
Metropolitan Museum in New York.26 This included
Medici porcelain and Saint-Porchaire ceramics. Morgan also purchased the Museum’s
important Saint-Cloud green-ground ewer and basin (catalogue no. 8), although it
originally was catalogued as Mennecy. This was the second of this unusual type of green-ground
piece to enter his collection.27
The following year Morgan bought a round worktable with a yellow-ground
Sèvres porcelain plaque depicting mythological subjects, table by Martin Carlin.
It is now in the Frick Art Museum,
Pittsburgh.28 He also bought a
small square Louis XVI table with a Sèvres plaque. Both were bought from
Wertheimer’s executors.29 From then the
pace of acquisitions seems to have slowed, evidenced by fewer invoices in the files of the
Morgan Library.
In 1912 Morgan was occupied with shipping his collections from Europe to New York
and negotiating with New York to build a new wing to house much of his collection at
the Metropolitan Museum.30 The city did not want to pay for a new wing, and Morgan simultaneously made it clear to the Metropolitan
that he, in fact, did not intend to leave the whole collection to that museum.31 His intentions
never were clarified and therefore few specific provisions for placing his collections were
made in his will. He did specify that some of his collections were to go to the Wadsworth
Atheneum.
I have been greatly interested for many years in gathering my
collections of paintings, miniatures, porcelains and other works of art, and it has
been my desire and intention to make some suitable disposition of them or of such
portions of them as I might determine, which would render them permanently
available for the instruction and pleasure of the American people ... It would be
agreeable to me to have “The Morgan Memorial” which forms a portion of the
property of the Wadsworth Athenaeum at Hartford, Connecticut, utilized to
effectuate a part of this purpose.32
Morgan died in Europe in 1913. His collections were left to his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., to
distribute, according to the instructions in his will, or to sell. Much of the collection was
given to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, including the many pieces that had been
bought directly for the museum. The Pierpont Morgan Library retained the
works on paper, books, and manuscripts, as well as the decorative objects and paintings
that were part of the Library’s furnishings and decoration. Owing to financial
considerations imposed by heavy estate taxes, large segments of the collection were sold.
This included much of the French furniture collection, many pieces subsequently bought
by Henry Clay Frick. Frick also purchased Fragonard’s series The Progress of
Love. Approximately three-quarters of the French porcelain was given to the
Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the remaining works staying in his son’s collection
until his death in 1943. Several auctions in New York and London in 1944 dispersed
these pieces, and many now reside in other American museums.33
The Wadsworth Atheneum received important pieces of French porcelain from other
collectors, some before and some after Morgan, which are included in this catalogue.
Among the most important are from the collection of Forsyth Wickes (1876-1965).
While Wickes bequeathed most of his porcelain to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, along with furniture,
painting, and other French decorative objects, he did present the Wadsworth Atheneum
with three objects, a Chantilly cup and saucer (catalogue no. 14), a Saint-Cloud covered
jar (catalogue no. 7), and the lovely Mennecy figure of Amphitrite (catalogue no. 37).
Notes
