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François-Joseph Navez
Belgian, 1787–1869
Musical Group
1821
A man playing a mandolin gazes ardently at an attractive young woman seated on her mother’s lap. The older woman looks down at a child with a tambourine, who in turn stares at the man's hands. Navez painted this scene during an extended period studying and painting in Rome. His Italian models are outfitted in elaborate costumes, which are as much the subject of the painting as the relationships implied by the figures’ glances.
Image Caption
François-Joseph Navez, Musical Group, 1821, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1976.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
46 x 54 3/4 in. (116.8 x 139.1 cm)
Object Number
1976.1
Acquisition
Acquired by the Clark, 1976
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Leo van Puyvelde.. François-Joseph Navez.. Brussels: Editions des cahiers Belges.. 1931.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Bonfait, Olivier. Maestà di Roma. D'Ingres à Degas, Rome et les artistes français. Academie de France a Rome, Italy, March 5-June 29, 2003; Dahesh Museum of Art, September 3-November 2, 2003. Academie de France a Rome. 2003. Vries, Annette de. Passie voor schilderijen: De verzameling Steengracht van Duivenvoorde. Exhibition catalogue. Voorschoten: Stichting Duivenvoorde, 2012.
Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
The artist, sold to Steengracht, 1822; Johan Steengracht van Oostkapelle, The Hague (1822–d. 1846); Hendrik Steengracht van Oosterland, The Hague, his son, by descent (1846–d. 1875); Hendrik Adolf Steengracht van Duivenvoorde, The Hague, his son, by descent (1875–d. 1912, his sale, Georges Petit, Paris, 9 June 1913, no. 102, as La Famille italienne, sold to Haber); Haber (from 1913); Würthle, Vienna (by 1931); The German Centre, London (until 1975, sale, Sotheby’s, London, 15 Oct. 1975, no. 93, sold to Weitzner);¹ [Julius H. Weitzner, London, sold to the Clark, 9 Feb. 1976]; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1976.
1. The Vienna and London provenance both come from the Sotheby’s sales catalogue of 1975. Würthle may refer to the Galerie Würthle.