Jean-Jacques Henner

Sarah M. Hitchcock, New York (commissioned directly from the artist through George A. Lucas)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1891-1928, bequeathed from the above)
Thomas Hitchcock, New York (in 1928)
Julian L. Peabody, New York (in 1928)
Babcock Galleries, New York
Vose Galleries, Boston (in 1930)
Arthur J. Secor, Toledo (in 1930)
Gifted from the above

New York, Union League Club, 1883, no. 458
Newport, Rhode Island, The Art Association of Newport, "Exhibition of Paintings by Old and Modern Masters," 1930, no. 20
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Past Rediscovered: French Paintings, 1880-1900,  July 3-September 7, 1969, no. 48
Toledo Museum of Art, The Unseen Art of TMA: What's in the Vaults and Why?, September 12, 2004-January 2, 2005

Emile Durand-Géville, "La peinture aux Etats-Unis. Les galeries privées," Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. XXXVI, 1887, pp. 65-75
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue of Paintings, New York, 1905, p. 73, no. 566
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue of Paintings, New York, 1924, p. 139
Art News, vol. XXIX, December 6, 1930, p. 17, illustrated
Art News, vol. XXIX, February 7, 1931, p. 14
"Toledo Museum Acquires a Famous Henner," The Art Digest, no. 19, p. 212, illustrated p. 213
Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, June 1931, no. 60, illustrated
Robert Rosenblum, "The 19th Century Franc Revalued," Art News, vol. 68, no. 4, Summer 1969, pp. 27, 28, illustrated p. 28
The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 76, pl. 265
L.M.C. Randall, ed. The Diary of George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris, 1857-1909, Princeton, New Jersey, 1979, pp. 500, 501, 503, 504
Peter Morrin and Eric Zafran, Drawings from Georgia Collections, 19th and 20th Centuries, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1981, p. 66, no. 30
Isabelle de Lannoy, Jean-Jacques Henner, 1829-1905, Essai de Catalogue, unpublished dissertation, 5. vols, 1986, pp. 999-1001, no. 458, illustrated

The present work is the third large replica Henner completed after his Magdeleine presented in the Paris Salon of 1878 (and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse).  The artist began and completed the work of the Biblical figure in profile, kneeling in prayer between August 1879 and June 1880 after which it was purchased by Sarah M. Hitchcock through George A. Lucas.  According to the artist's diary (Friday, July 2, 1880), Henner refused to promise Lucas that he would not paint another version of the work.   Most likely eight large replicas of the Salon picture were executed in addition to twenty-seven small studies. The present work was the second of Henner's to enter an American museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1891. The work was withdrawn from its collection in 1928 by Mrs. Hitchcock's nephew, Thomas.