Lean-to Writing Desk (secrétaire en pente)
c. 1750
Cabinetmaker, French, active c. 1730 - 1765/1766
Artwork overview
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Medium
veneered on oak (stained purple on the underside of the top) with tulipwood cut on the quarter, root-cut kingwood, and other end-cut woods; gilded bronze mounts
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 80 x 53.3 x 35.8 cm (31 1/2 x 21 x 14 1/8 in.)
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Accession
1942.9.419
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Sir Edward Page Turner [d. 1874]; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Page Turner, Battlesden House, Preston Park, Brighton; (her estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 20 February 1903, no. 91A); (Frank Partridge, London).[1] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 24 February 1910 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Sir Edward Page Turner was a well-known British collector. According to a Christie's marked catalogue, the writing desk sold for 1680 Pounds to "Partridge," presumably the dealer Frank Partridge. A note on this sale (in Connoisseur 5 (January-April 1903): 48) asserts that Sir Edward originally paid 21 Pounds for the writing desk.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1973
François Boucher in North American Collections: One Hundred Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago, 1973-1974, not in catalogue or brochure (shown only in Washington).
Bibliography
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 18.
2018
Chuang, Grace. "The Furniture of Bernard Vanrisamburgh II, Master Cabinetmaker in Eighteenth-Century Paris." Center, Record of Activities and Research Reports 38 (2018): repro. 92, 93-95.
Inscriptions
beneath the front rail, stenciled in black: B.V.R.B.; beneath the front rail, stamped with the monogram of the jurés, and blackened with ink
Wikidata ID
Q62266853