LOUIS-LÉOPOLD BOILLY | Les Caresses Maternelles

Senator Symphor Casimir Joseph Boittelle (1813–97);

His sale, Paris, Pillet, 24 April 1866, lot 6, where acquired by

M. Mason;

His sale, Paris, Pillet, 1 February 1875, lot 3, to M. Borel;

With Arnold, André and Jacques Seligmann, Paris;

Seized from the above by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) and transferred to the German Embassy, Paris in August 1940;

Transferred to the Louvre in November 1940;

Transferred for restoration to the Buxheim Charterhouse, Bavaria on 14 December 1944;

Repatriated to France on 4 March 1946 and subsequently restituted to the Seligmann family on 8 May 1946;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Rheims, 23 May 1951, lot 19;

Acquired by Antenor Patiño (1896–1982), for his house in Avenue Foch, Paris;

Thence by descent, until sold anonymously ('The Property from a Mid-Western Estate'), New York, Christie's, 22 May 1998, lot 131;

Private European collection.

H. Harrisse, L–L. Boilly, sa vie et son œuvre, Paris 1898, p. 93, cat. no. 114.

We are grateful to Mr. Alastair Laing for endorsing the attribution to Boilly upon inspection of the original, and to Mr. Pascal Zuber for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs in 2011.

In the mid-20th century this elegant picture belonged to the Bolivian tin mining magnate Antenor Patiño. At one time considered one of the wealthiest men in the world, Patiño maintained homes in Europe and North America, including an apartment on Fifth Avenue and another on Avenue Foch in Paris.