The Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans searches for its missing works

Since the Second World War, the collection donated by Paul Fourché to Orléans in 1907 had been presumed lost. It was then thought that it had been destroyed in the fire that had ravaged the museum’s annex where it was kept. In the 1990s, research conducted by the museum’s director, Éric Moinet, demonstrated that this was not the case. Photographs taken before the fire indeed showed a museum emptied of its collections following its looting.
A little less than three years ago, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans organised a small exhibition devoted to these missing paintings (ill. 1). Some are known through old photographs, others thanks to fairly detailed inventories, but unfortunately without any known illustrations.
Today, continuing this work, the museum is publishing, in PDF form, a complete catalogue of the paintings belonging to it but whose locations are currently unknown. This concerns a total of 424 works, around 300 of which come from Paul Fourché, the others having disappeared in the nineteenth or twentieth century, often because they had been deposited outside the museum.

This fundamental work, in which all the information currently known is published, together with all the photographs available to the museum, is an essential step towards enabling the museum to recover them one day.

The work carried out has already made it possible for four missing works to return to the museum. This year, a painting by Achille-Etna Michallon (ill. 2) was spontaneously returned by a German collector couple. The painting, whose entry into their possession remains unknown, probably having been taken away by a German soldier, bears numerous labels on the reverse, one of which indicates its provenance.
Another painting, a French anonymous work from the sixteenth century, which had been acquired by the Musée départemental de l’Oise in 1994, returned to Orléans a few months ago (ill. 3). Commissioned for Orléans Cathedral, it had been identified by Éric Moinet as coming from the Paul Fourché bequest, but for around thirty years the museum in Beauvais had refused to return it.
A head from a sculpture of Joan of Arc dating from 1899, by Armand Le Véel (ill. 4), originating from a monument destroyed in the garden of the Archbishop’s Palace in 1944 and recovered by a local resident, was bequeathed by him to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. We had already reported on a painting by Louis Neillot, identified at auction and returned in 2024 (see the news item of 21/6/24).

It should indeed be remembered that works belonging to French museums are inalienable and imprescriptible. While current owners — those who believe themselves to be owners — may perhaps be unaware of their provenance, it will be much more difficult in the future to invoke such ignorance. The catalogue, which we are making available here as a free download, is indeed currently being very widely circulated by the museum among notaries, auctioneers, dealers and other museums that may be in a position to know their whereabouts.

A large part of the paintings have no known illustration. Even if some of them may have incorrect or questionable attributions, it should be noted that there are works bearing the names of highly important presumed authors, some of which had been confirmed at the time by leading art historians such as Roberto Longhi or Fritz Lugt.
Among these, one can mention a small head of a cherub, a presumed element of a large destroyed painting (cat. 8), a Portrait of a Woman by Bronzino (cat. 25), a Deposition on canvas from the early sixteenth century (cat. 27), of which Roberto Longhi wrote: “Very good, Venetian school, undoubtedly by Pordenone. Very interesting”, paintings attributed to Giulio Romano (cat. 29), Giampietrino (cat. 30), an attribution proposed by Longhi, and Hans Holbein the Younger (cat. 50).
Among the Renaissance paintings, particular attention should be drawn to a Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John (ill. 5), attributed to Raphael’s workshop (cat. 31), an image of which is known. The work appears to be of very high quality, as confirmed by Roberto Longhi: “Very beautiful painting, undoubtedly by a pupil of Raphael. From the good period, perhaps Niccolò dell’Abbate around 1535. Venetian school, the tree has nothing Raphaelesque about it, but is very Venetian. In any case, an original work: the painter was inspired by Raphael. Very fine drawings by pupils or copyists of the period on the shutters: the one on the right is probably by Perino del Vaga. The whole ensemble is superb and of the highest order”. One can only dream of seeing such a painting return to the collections in Orléans.

We can also mention, among the works for which no photograph has been preserved, a Holy Family by Denys Calvaert (cat. 43), two paintings by Frans I Francken (cats. 45 and 46), and a Dead Swan by Jacques de Gheyn, a large painting (130 x 179 cm) whose attribution was confirmed by Frits Lugt and of which he stated that it was “very curious and good”.
Many French seventeenth-century paintings are missing, including a King David, a Joan of Arc (ill. 6), and a Baptism of Christ by Philippe de Champaigne (cat. 78). The latter two, both large-scale works, do not come from the Paul Fourché collection. While there is reason to fear that the Joan of Arc, which disappeared from the museum bearing her name during the Second World War, may indeed have been destroyed in the fire, it is possible that the Baptism of Christ, missing since 1912 from the general hospital (no photograph of it is known), may still exist. The same applies to a Presentation in the Temple by Laurent de La Hyre, recorded as missing after 1851.

Nicolas Chaperon, Jacques Courtois, Simon Vouet, Eustache Le Sueur, Francisque Millet, Pierre Patel, François Verdier, Antoine Rivalz and several others are also the presumed authors of paintings that have disappeared. No images are known, nor is there one for a Return from Egypt by Jacques Stella (cat. 101), but it is possible that the composition of the latter is known through a drawing (which was engraved) preserved at the Metropolitan Museum (ill. 7).

We now reproduce some of the missing works. One of them has already been more or less located. It is a Landscape by Lacroix de Marseille (ill. 8 and 9). Bequeathed by Doctor Payen to the museum in 1878, declared stolen in 1941, it has appeared several times at auction in recent years: at Sotheby’s London on 12 April 1978, at the Dorotheum in Vienna on 11 March 1980, and then at Nagel Auktionen in Stuttgart on 21 March 2007. If readers of La Tribune de l’Art know its whereabouts, they should not hesitate to inform the museum.

Only one work from the fourteenth century (an Italian Crucifixion) and three from the fifteenth century are recorded as missing. Among the latter, a fine Deposition (ill. 10) is attributed to the Master of Frankfurt, an Antwerp painter, contrary to what his conventional name might suggest.

From the Italian Renaissance, in addition to the paintings mentioned above, one should also note a Virgin and Child by Lorenzo Costa (ill. 11), about which Roberto Longhi wrote: “Very beautiful. Indisputable”

By Jan van Hemessen, an Antwerp Mannerist painter, two wooden panels from a triptych, representing respectively Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint John the Baptist (ill. 12), are recorded as missing.

What appears to be a very fine painting, depicting the fire of Troy (ill. 13), formerly identified as being by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was attributed to Kerstiaen I de Keuninck by Charles Sterling, an attribution that seems to have been widely accepted since then.

Entering the museum with an attribution to the Provençal school of the fifteenth century, two panels (ill. 14 and 15) were attributed to the Spanish school by Georges Isarlo, an attribution later refined by Chandler Post. They are thought to be works painted by the Master of Rio Frio, active in Ávila between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It should be noted that a polyptych by this artist is preserved at the Musée Goya in Castres.

Jean-Baptiste Martin, called Martin des Batailles, who collaborated with Adam François van der Meulen and directed the Gobelins manufactory, is the author of a Prince de Condé at the Battle of Seneffe (ill. 16), now missing.

We reproduce here a very charming small Flemish painting (ill. 17), still anonymous but delightful, depicting Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery. Roberto Longhi, who considered the painting “very interesting, from the seventeenth century”, had rejected an attribution to Palma il Giovane.

The Dutch genre painter Willem Cornelisz Duyster is represented by a signed panel depicting a drinker (ill. 18), which Frits Lugt described as “excellent”.

An important still life (ill. 19) by Jan Davidsz de Heem was among the missing paintings from the Paul Fourché collection. The work is signed.

Although falsely signed Jan Steen, this painting, Battle of Gossips (ill. 20), was attributed to Jan Miense Molenaer by Frits Lugt. Another painting by the same artist (Tavern Interior) was in the Paul Fourché collection, but no known photograph of it exists.

A painting by Palamedes Palamedesz, brother of Anthonie Palamedesz, entitled The Churching of a Woman, had its attribution confirmed by Frits Lugt (ill. 21).

Northern paintings were numerous among the works donated by Paul Fourché. They even included a Roman landscape by Pieter Saenredam (ill. 22), which was appreciated both by Roberto Longhi and Frits Lugt.

Among these Northern paintings are some rarities, such as this painting signed by Maerten Stoop, an artist who died before the age of thirty (ill. 23).

Better known as a marine painter, Abraham Storck (or Sturckenburg) is thought to be the author of an amusing Garden Entrance (ill. 24), adorned with sculptures, fountains and peacocks.

Two fine portraits of men by the Flemish painter Ferdinand Jacob Voet, who pursued his career in Italy and France, have both disappeared, but were photographed (ill. 25 and 26).

Although Philips Wouwerman is the best known, it is in fact his brother Pieter Wouwerman to whom we owe a painting on a subject close to those treated by the former: The White Horse (ill. 27). Frits Lugt considered this painting “quite good”.

One of the most important works in the collection, and perhaps the one that Olivia Voisin, the museum’s director, would most like to see return, is a probable Portrait of Charles Nicolas Cochin by Jean Siméon Chardin (ill. 28). The importance of Chardin for Orléans is well known (see this article); although the museum possesses an extraordinary pastel by his hand, it cannot display any painting by him. The return of this portrait of a draughtsman and engraver, a close friend of the painter, would be an extraordinary development.

An artist’s portrait, that of Pierre-Édouard Dagoty (ill. 29), is also missing from the collections. The painting entered the collection as a work by François-Hubert Drouais, but it is more likely to be a work by Johann Julius Heinsius, a German painter who pursued his career in France and ended his life in Orléans.

Rich in Northern seventeenth-century paintings, the collection also includes three works from the same country, but this time dating from the eighteenth century, which deserve to be reproduced here.
The first is a genre scene by the Antwerp painter Jan Josef I Horemans (ill. 30), whose inspiration is clearly very close to that of works from the previous century. It has a pendant, which unfortunately was not photographed. Both paintings, appreciated by Frits Lugt, are signed.

The second is a work by Cornelis Troost (ill. 31), rather remarkable in its almost caricatural depiction of a religious scene, and the third is a fine portrait of a young woman (ill. 32) by Nicolaas Verkolje, a “very good painting” according to Frits Lugt.

Although many French paintings disappeared during the Second World War — including a small panel (33 x 24 cm) signed by Édouard Manet and dated 1880, Boulevard Saint-Denis —, few were photographed. To conclude this article, we will reproduce here a panel by Eugène Boudin, Channel at Low Tide (ill. 33), and a painting by Théodule Ribot, The Picture Seller (ill. 34).

We therefore refer readers to the catalogue for further information on the hundreds of other paintings that the museum is still seeking. In any case, there is reason for optimism. It is certain that a large number of them still exist, and that sooner or later they will eventually return to the museum they should never have left.