TracingArt
Millions of Resources, Spanning Five Centuries
Here's how the Getty Provenance Index is transforming research on the social life of art.
Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar, Willem Kalf
Gift of Mrs. James W. Fesler in memory of Daniel W. and Elizabeth C. Marmon,
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, No copyright
The following year, Knoedler & Co. sold it to "Mrs. James W. Fesler," who donated it to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields the same year.
Records show her full name was Caroline Marmon Fesler.
Often disguised behind their husbands' names, female collectors played a major role in the formation of many American museum collections.
Studying an object's trajectory - from the moment it's created, then as it moves between new owners or custodians
and eventually is lost or destroyed, or reaches its present location - is the provenance researcher's job.
M. Knoedler & Co. Painting stock book 9, page 76, 1943-1952. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2012.M.54
In 1669, Dutch artist Willem Kalf painted Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar.
Kalf worked in 1600s Amsterdam, a dynamic trade center where luxurious imports - like the Chinese porcelain jar,
Venetian goblet, and Ottoman rug depicted in his painting - circulated widely, and were a sign of cosmopolitan taste.
For the next two centuries of its existence, it's hard to know much about how and where this painting traveled.
In 1864, it was sold at auction in Paris, but the name of the buyer remains unknown.
In 1936, it was part of an art exhibition in Amsterdam.
A label on the back of the painting shows it was lent by the art dealer Dr. H. Burg.
Sometime between 1936 and 1944, the painting traveled to New York with a couple from Cologne, Germany.
Ongoing research by the Indianapolis Museum of
Art at Newfields, where the painting is now,
seeks to clarify the movements of artworks during periods of conflict - such as World War II,
when many artworks were taken from their rightful owners by the Nazi regime.
In 1944, the famous art dealership Michael Knoedler & Co. purchased the painting.
1669
1700
1864
1936
1940
1944
The hundreds of thousands of transactions in
the newly reconfigured Getty Provenance Index
form a complex web of relationships between
objects, people, events, places and time.
Through it, we can see that painters acquired works from fellow artists, and often how much they paid for them.
Perhaps as a token of admiration, Claude Monet purchased La Jatte de lait by American painter Berthe Morisot at her first solo show in 1892.
Berthe Morisot
Claude Monet
La Jatte de lait, Berthe Morisot
Private Collection, Photograph Courtesy of Sotheby's, Inc. ©
Caravaggio
Giuseppe Cesari
Boy with Basket of Fruit, Merisi Michelangelo, called Caravaggio
Galleria Borghese, © Galleria Borghese / ph. Mauro Coen
Self-Portrait as Bacchus (known as "Sick Bacchus"), Merisi Michelangelo, called Caravaggio
Galleria Borghese, © Galleria Borghese / ph. Mauro Coen
300 years earlier in Rome, artist Giuseppe Cesari was Caravaggio's first teacher, and obtained two of the artist's most famous paintings.
The paintings and others were seized- perhaps on trumped up charges- by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1607, and still reside in the Galleria Borghese to this day.
Paulus Potter
Adolphe Schloss
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun
Chevalier Lambert
André Coquille
William Norton
Baron Hastings
Charles Sedelmeyer
Years later, the painting was looted by the Vichy Government of France during WW2
The "Piebald" Horse, Paulus Potter
J. Paul Getty Museum, CC0
After the war, the painting was restituted to heirs of the Schloss family, who sold it at auction in 1951. It was eventually purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1988.
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
The National Gallery, London, Bought, 1897 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Portrait du peintre Jean Baptiste Lebrun, époux de Madame Vigée (1748-1813), profil à droite, Pierre Simon Benjamin Duvivier
CCØ Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de la Ville de Paris
As the art market professionalized, artists also acted as art dealers and experts.
Husband to the renowned artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, artist Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun capitalized on the appeal of 17th-century Dutch art among 18th-century French buyers, and organized auctions where this painting, The "Piebald" Horse, changed owners many times.
Thomas Gilcrease
Oil Magnate, Founder of Gilcrease Museum
Henry C. Frick
Industrialist, Founder of Frick Collection
Joseph H. Hirschorn
Financier, Founding Donor of Hirshhorn Museum
Andrew W. Mellon
Financier, Founding Donor of National Gallery of Art
Samuel H. Kress
Businessman, Founding Donor of National Gallery of Art
Robert Sterling Clark
Businessman, Founder of Clark Art Institute
Clendenin James Ryan Jr
Publisher, Donor
Norton W. Simon
Businessman, Founder of Norton Simon Museum
Samuel A. Marx
Architect, Donor
Lizzie P. Bliss
Collector, Founder of MoMA
Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun
French painter, art critic, and dealer
Alexandre-Joseph Paillet
French auctioneer and art dealer
James Christie
British auctioneer, Founder of Christie's auction house
Harry Philips
British auctioneer, Founder of Phillips auction house
Philippus van der Schley
Dutch engraver and art dealer
Museums most mentioned in the GPI
- 1National GalleryLondon, UK
- 2Musée du LouvreParis, France
- 3Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York, USA
- 4RijksmuseumAmsterdam, Netherlands
- 5Wallace CollectionLondon, UK
- 6The State Hermitage MuseumSaint Petersburg, Russia
- 7MauritshuisThe Hague, Netherlands
- 8J Paul Getty MuseumLos Angeles, USA
- 9Royal CollectionLondon, UK
- 10National Gallery of ArtWashington DC, USA
In addition to acquiring paintings through purchase, museums are often supported by donations from individual patrons.
The GPI makes these patterns visible, even across museum collections.
Within American museum acquisition records, a few famous collectors spring up often.
Additionally, middlemen like Le Brun and other historical actors have had an even greater impact on the trajectories of those artworks worldwide.
Nearly 40% of all museum artworks identified in the GPI are linked to these major art market players.
GPI data reveals the scale and complexity of their collective influence.
But, to date, artworks identified in museums only make up about 1% of GPI data.
The vast majority of artworks in the GPI sit outside of museums in non-public collections, or in whereabouts unknown.
The GPI represents a window into a vast and growing universe of data available on our shared cultural heritage.
As more data becomes available, provenance researchers continue to uncover fascinating stories as they seek to understand humanity's infinitely complex relationship with art.