Updated 03 April 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
The Visitation
| Date | 1912 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
| Size（cm） | 77.5 x 164 |
| Inscriptions | Signed and dated lower left: G. Desvallières 1912 |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M402 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1959-0082 |
Desvallières trained under Gustave Moreau and after the First World War, founded the "Ateliers d'Art Sacré" with Maurice Denis where they strove to revive religious painting in the modern world. This work depicts the Visitation from the first chapter of the Book of Luke. Even in the depiction of this traditional subject, the fresh colors and the figures clothed in contemporary dress seen on the left edge of the composition reveal a new artistic sensibility. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)
Provenance
Galerie E. Druet, Paris, 1913, stock no. 7857 [gallery label on the reverse]; purchased from the above by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. December 1921 [see letter from Galerie E. Druet to Léonce Bénédite, dated 13 December 1921, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.
Exhibition History
- 1913
- Salon d'Automne, 0 1913 - 0 1913
Bibliography
- 1913
- Hautecœur, L. Les Salons de 1913. Gazette des Beaux-Arts. ser. 4, tome 10, 1913, p. 500, repr. p. 504.
- 1955
- La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 56, repr.
- 1961
- Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-129.
- 1971
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 25, repr.
- 1975
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 69, repr.
- 1978
- Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 74, repr.
- 1979
- The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 106, repr.
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 590.
- 1992
- The French Modern Art, from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, ed. Okinawa, Urasoe Art Museum, 1992, p.24, cat. no. 14, col. repr
- 2003
- Ambroselli, Catherine, et al. George Desvallières et le Salon d'automne. Paris, Somogy, c2003, pp. 122-123, 129, repr.
- 2018
- The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 402, col. repr.