Interior view of the Hoentschel Collection at 58 Boulevard Flandrin, Paris

Léopold Stevens|Alfred Stevens

ca. 1903–06 · Oil on canvas; mounted on a carved wood stretcher and framed with carved gilt wood Louis XV frame · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Showing the main floor of the Gallery at 58 Boulevard Flandrin, Paris, where the interior decorator Georges Hoentschel had installed his art collection, is an excellent example of a so-called “interior portrait” for which the French painter Léopold Stevens was known. The collection of paneling, carved woodwork, and seat furniture depicted in this painting was acquired in 1906 by J. Pierpont Morgan, then serving as the Met’s president, and given to the Museum the following year. The Morgan gift lent the institution its initial strength in French decorative arts and led to the creation of a special department and the construction of a new wing. Many works from the Hoentschel/Morgan collection are still on view at the Museum. The son of the fashionable genre painter Alfred Emile Léopold Stevens, the younger Stevens also painted marines and Orientalist scenes.

Artist

Léopold Stevens|Alfred Stevens

Date

ca. 1903–06

Medium

Oil on canvas; mounted on a carved wood stretcher and framed with carved gilt wood Louis XV frame

Culture

French, Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, The James Parker Charitable Foundation Gift, 2019