The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

François Tronchin

François Tronchin

1757
(Swiss, 1702–1789)
Unframed: 38 x 46.3 cm (14 15/16 x 18 1/4 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Roethlisberger 349
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Jean-Etienne Liotard created portraits of eight other members of the Tronchin family around the same time as this pastel.

Description

This pastel drawing depicts François Tronchin, a prominent figure in his native Geneva and an impassioned patron of the arts. The table before Tronchin features a book, mathematical instruments, and papers that indicate his interests in architecture and music. Rembrandt's Lady in Bed, a painting that the Dutch master created around 1645 (today in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery) and the most highly prized painting in Tronchin's collection, rests on an easel nearby. Liotard considered the portrait of Tronchin among his finest works, and the meticulous rendering of the sitter's powdered wig, transparent flesh, and lace cuffs suggest the skill he had developed in pastel at this time.
  • 1757-1798
    François Tronchin [1704-1798], Geneva, by descent to Jean-Louis Robert Tronchin
    1798-?
    Jean-Louis Robert Tronchin [1763- ?], Geneva, by descent to Armand Henri Tronchin
    ?-after 1865
    Armand Henri Tronchin [1794-1865], Bessinge, Sweden, by descent to Louis-Rémy-Nosky Tronchin
    after 1865-after 1873
    Louis-Rémy-Nosky Tronchin [1825-1873], Geneva, by descent to Henry Tonchin
    after 1873-after 1891
    Henry Tronchin [1853-1891], by descent to Robert Tronchin
    by 1925-by 1948
    Robert Tronchin [1883-?], by descent to Christiane Tronchin, Marquise de Hillerin, Paris
    by 1948-1950
    Christiane Tronchin, Marquise de Hillerin, Paris, sold as part of the Tronchin collcetion to Xavier Givaudan
    1950-by 1973
    Xavier Givaudan, Geneva, by descent to André Givaudan
    by 1973-after 1974
    André Givaudan, Geneva
    after 1974-1978
    (Léon Givaudan, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1978-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Moücke, Francesco. "Liotard." In Serie di ritratti degli eccellenti pittori: dipinti di propria mano che esistono nell'Imperial galleria di Firenze, 273-76. Florence: Moücke, 1762. Mentioned.
    Tronchin, François. Catalogue des tableaux du cabinet de M. Tronchin, conseiller d'Etat à Genève. Geneva: Tronchin, 1765. Mentioned: p. 50 books.google.com
    Liotard, Jean-Etienne. Traité des principes et des règles de la peinture [1781] Repr. Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1945. Mentioned: pp. 108-9 doc.rero.ch
    Sinner, Johann Rudolph. Voyage historique et littéraire dans la suisse occidentale. Neuchâtel: Imprimerie de la Société typographique, 1781. Mentioned: p. 42
    Exposition Jean-Etienne Liotard. Exh. Cat. Geneva: Société des arts, 1886. Mentioned: p. 7, no. 36
    Giron, C. "L'Exposition Liotard." Journal de Genève (May 12, 1886). Mentioned: n.p.
    Tronchin, Henry. Le Conseiller François Tronchin et ses amis Voltaire, Diderot, Grimm. Paris: Plon, 1895.
    Mentioned: p. 258 hdl.handle.net
    Humbert, Édouard, Alphonse Revilliod, and J.W.R. Tilanus. La Vie et les oeuvres de Jean Etienne Liotard, étude biographique et iconographique. Amsterdam: C.M. Van Gogh, 1897. Mentioned: pp. 129-30, no. 78; Reproduced: p. 129 archive.org
    Baud-Bovy, Daniel. "Le Mouvemeent d'art en suisse, peintres genevois (XVIIIe siècle et commencement du XIXe), premier article." Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 542 (August 1902): 101-113. Mentioned: p. 105
    Crosnier, Jules. Nos Anciens et leurs oeuvres. Geneva: Léon Bovy, 1908. Mentioned: p. 104; Reproduced: n.p.
    Vaillat, Léandre. "Liotard." Les Arts 10 (October 1911): 1-32. Mentioned: p. 24
    Clouzot, Henri. "Les Pastels de Genève." La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe 3 (1920): 158-165. Mentioned: p. 164
    "Catalogue des oeuvres de Liotard exposés au Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, du 1er au 31 mai 1925." Pages d'art, revue mensuelle suisse illustrée (January 1925). Mentioned: p. 103
    Gielly, Louis. "Les pastels de J.-É. Liotard à Genève," Revue de l'art ancien et moderne (1926). Mentioned: pp. 256, 271
    Gielly, Louis Jules. L'école genevoise de peinture. Geneva: Sonor, 1935. Mentioned: pp. 46, 207
    Ratouis de Limay, Paul. Le Pastel en France au XVIIIème siècle. Paris: Baudinière, 1946. Mentioned: p. 133
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    Benisovich, Michel N. "Les collections de tableaux du conseiller François Tronchin et le musée de l'Ermitage." Geneva 1 (1953): 25-51. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 40, no. 80, fig. 13
    Fosca, François. "Un peintre genevois du XVIIIe siècle: Jean-Etienne Liotard." Jardin des arts 27 (1957): 164-169. Mentioned: p. 168; Reproduced: p. 166
    Adair, Virginia and Lee. Eighteenth Century Pastel Portraits. London: John Gifford Ltd, 1971. Mentioned: p. 73
    De Genève à l'Ermitage: les collections de François Tronchin. Exh. Cat. Geneva: Musée Rath, 1974.
    Mentioned: pp. 175-78, no. 347; Reproduced: p. 177
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 520; Mentioned: p. 521-522
    Georgel, Pierre and Anne-Marie Lecoq. La peinture dans la peinture. Exh. Cat. Dijon: Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 161
    Duffin, Ross. Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale/International Repertory of Music Iconography Inventory of Music Iconography. New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1991. Mentioned: vol. 8, p. 11, no. 213
    Brown, Christopher, Jan Kelch, and Pieter J. J. van Thiel. Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop. Exh. Cat. London: National Gallery, 1991. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 230
    Herdt, Anne de. Dessins de Liotard: suivi du catalogue de l'oeuvre dessiné. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992. Reproduced: p. 182
    L'Age d'or flamand et hollandais: collections de Catherine II, Musée de l'Ermitage, Saint-Pétersbourg. Exh. Cat. Dijon: Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1993. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 47
    Kathke, Petra. Porträt und Accessoire: eine Bildnisform im 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: D. Reimer, 1997. Mentioned: p. 303; Reproduced: fig. 154
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 12-13; Reproduced: p. 13
    Koos, Marianne. "'Malerei ohne Pockenspuren': Oberfläche im Werk von Jean-Etienne Liotard."Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 4, no. 70 (2007): 545-72. Mentioned: pp. 563-70; Reproduced: p. 564
    Roethlisberger, Marcel and Renée Loche. Liotard: catalogue, sources et correspondance. Doornspijk: Davaco, 2008. Mentioned: vol. 1, pp. 503-506, no. 349; Reproduced: vol. 2, fig. 499
    Bark, Julianna M. "Liotard, History Painting, and Mimesis." Cantor Arts Center Journal 6 (2008-9): 19-25. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 22
    Lorenzo, Andrea di. "Sotto segno di Correggio. Due progetti per soffitti illusionistici: Una proposta per il Giovane Primaticcio." Nuovi Studi 14, no. 15 (2009): 153-64. Mentioned: p. 154; Reproduced: fig. 175
    Buyssens, Danielle. La question de l'art à Genève, du cosmopolitisme des lumières au romantisme des nationalités. Ph.D. diss. Université de Lille 3, 2011. Reproduced: pl. V
    Blumle, Claudia. "Das Bild als Vorhang." In Hinter dem Vorhang: Verhüllung und Enthüllung seit der Renaissance - von Tizian bis Christo. Oakar Bätschmann, et.al. Munich: Hirmer, 2016. Reproduced: p. 33
    Wetering, Ernst van de, Murray Pearson, Carin van Nes, and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Rembrandt's Paintings Revisited - a Complete Survey : a Reprint of A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings VI. 2017. Reproduced and mentioned; vol. 2 p. 585, fig. 3
    Guichard, Charlotte. La griffe du peintre: la valeur de l'art (1730-1820).
    Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2018. Reproduced: pp. 6-8, fig. 1; Mentioned: p. 9
    Salmon, Xavier. Pastels in the Musée Du Louvre: 17th and 18th Centuries. 2018. p. 210
    Grijzenhout, F., and Jean-Etienne Liotard. Liotard in Nederland. Utrecht: Kwadraat, 1985. Reproduced: p. 63.
    Guichard, Charlotte. "Signatures, Authorship and Autographie in Eighteenth-Century French Painting." Art History 41, no. 2 (April 2018): 266-291. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 272-273, fig. 3 & 4
    Oberli, Matthias. Mit Pinsel, Palette und Perücke: Barocke Malerei in der Schweiz. Basel : Schwabe Verlag, Schwabe Verlagsgruppe AG, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 38-39, Abb. 21
  • Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).
    De Genève à l'Ermitage: les collections de François Tronchin. Musée Rath, Geneva (June 21 - September 15, 1974).
    Exposition Jean Etienne Liotard, Johann Heinrich Füssli. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris (April - June 1948).
    Exposition d'oeuvres de Jean Etienne Liotard. Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva (May 1 - 31, 1925).
    Exposition Jean-Etienne Liotard. Société des arts, Geneva (1886).
  • {{cite web|title=François Tronchin|url=false|author=Jean-Etienne Liotard|year=1757|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1978.54