William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) Tête d'Italienne avec une couronne de laurier (Head of an Italian girl with a laurel wreath), 1872 Oil on canvas 19 x 15-1/4 inches (48.3 x 38.7 cm) Signed and dated in lower left background: W Bouguereau / 1872 PROVENANCE: The artist; Goupil Opéra, Paris, July 1, 1872 (stockbook no. 6787); M. Jesup, September 6, 1872; Mrs. Theodore Cuyler, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1877; Philip Suval Fine Arts, New York; Private collection, California. EXHIBITED: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, "Choice Paintings Loaned from Private Galleries of Philadelphia, and Hans Makart's Great Picture of Venice Paying Homage to Caterina Cornaro," January 1877, as Petrarch's Laura, lent by Mrs. Theodore Cuyler. LITERATURE: Bouguereau's accounts, as Jeune Italienne à la courrone (tête); Goupil's stockbooks, no. 6787, as Jeune Muse; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Choice Paintings Loaned from Private Galleries of Philadelphia, and Hans Makart's Great Picture of Venice Paying Homage to Caterina Cornaro, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, 1877, as Petrarch's Laura, no. 210; C. Vendryès, William Bouguereau, Paris, 1885, p. 47, as Tête d'Italienne avec une couronne de laurier; M. Vachon, William Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 151, as Tête d'Italienne; M. Walker, William Bouguereau – A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings, New York, 1991, p. 68; D. Bartoli and F. Ross, William Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonné of His Painted Works, Vol. II, New York, 2010, pp. 144-45, no. 1872/12, illustrated. We wish to thank Frederick Ross for confirming the authenticity of this painting. Philadelphia collectors Theodore and Mary Elizabeth DeWitt Cuyler acquired this captivating painting by William Bouguereau as a contemporary work of art, less than five years after it was painted. They displayed it in their fashionable home at 1826 Rittenhouse Square. Sadly, however, Theodore Cuyler (1819-1876), a profoundly gifted, distinguished, and, as it turned out, exceedingly overworked solicitor for the Pennsylvania Railroad, died suddenly at the age of 56 in April 1876, leaving the Philadelphia legal and cultural community in a state of shock. Innumerable memorial tributes poured forth from the Philadelphia bar, from the railroads, and from the cultural institutions Cuyler ardently supported. One writer made special note of his passion for art in his eulogy: "To art he was deeply devoted. His home was embellished with innumerable proofs of his exquisite taste, and he was one of the most zealous friends of the Academy of Fine Arts of Philadelphia. He is the author of the supplement to its old charter, which has infused such strong vitality into its modern operations, and, on the evening preceding his death, he had just commenced preparing the address he had been chosen to deliver at the time of the formal opening of its splendid new building on Broad street, on the twenty-second of April." (Memorials of Theodore Cuyler, Philadelphia, 1879, p. 189) A year following her husband’s death, Mrs. Cuyler lent this Bouguereau, together with other prize paintings from her collection, to a special exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The catalogue of that exhibition provides an important record of the Cuylers’ holdings, as well affording a contextualization of this bust-length Tête d’Italienne, which the Cuylers titled Petrarch’s Laura, among works by painters such as John Vanderlyn and Jean-Louis Hamon. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved