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.
| 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 |
Image Caption
François-Joseph Navez, Musical Group, 1821, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, Acquired by the Clark, 1976.1
Select Bibliography
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.
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
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.
