JAMES NORTHCOTE (Plymouth 1746 – London 1831)
Portrait of Master Semon with a Spaniel
signed by James Northcote, inscribed and dated on the chest in the lower left Alex r. Semon born in London April. 5. 1791 . and drawn July . 5 . 1796
oil on canvas
44 ¼ x 34 7/8 inches (112.8 x 89 cm.)
Sold to the The Gross Family Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Holocaust
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist by
Mr. Semon, No. 36 White Lion Street, Pentonville (London), 1796
Admiral Comte de Saint-Bon
Sale of the Collection de l’amiral comte de Saint-Bon, M. Chevallier et MM. Féral, Paris, November 30, 1899
Arnold Seligmann & Co., Paris, from whom seized by
German Ambassador to France Otto Abetz, July 1940, and stored at the German Embassy, until August 1940 when sent to
Schenker Transport Company, Paris, until October 1940 when impounded by the
ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) who moved it to the Louvre, Paris, November 1940, and then sent to
ERR, Jeu de Paume, Paris, (coded Sel.5) until transported to
Altaussee salt mines, Altaussee, Austria (code name Peter Lager) where recovered by
The Monuments Fine Arts and Archives section of the Allied Forces (The Monuments Men), June 16, 1945, and transported to
Munich Central Collecting Point, Munich, June 17, 1945, (no. 216/1) from where returned on July 11, 1946, to
France
Restituted to the heirs of Arnold Seligmann
Anonymous sale, Paris, January 1951
Private Collection, Louisville, Kentucky from whom donated to
Non-profit institution, Louisville, Kentucky until deaccessioned 2020
LITERATURE
Stephen Gwynn, Memorials of an Eighteenth Century Painter (James Northcote), T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1898, p. 275, no. 304
Docteur H. Mireur, “J. Northcote” in Dictionnaire des Ventes D’Art, volume 5, Maison D’Editions D’Oeuvres Artistiques, 1911, p. 407
E. Bénézit, “James Northcote” in Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, volume 7, Librairie Gründ, Paris, 1976, p. 756
Jacob Simon, “The Account Book of James Northcote” in The Volume of the Walpole Society, volume 58, The Walpole Society, The University Press, Glasgow, 1995, p. 66, no. 319
It is unknown when Arnold Seligmann acquired James Northcote’s Portrait of Master Semon with a Spaniel known to have been in France at least since 1899. Arnold Seligmann & Cie was a Parisian art and antiquities dealership located in the Place Vendôme since 1932. Once part of the parent company Jacques Seligmann & Cie established in 1880, a family quarrel had split the company.[1] At the time both families were among the most prominent dealers in the world. This naturally marked them as initial prime targets for looting once the Nazi invasion of France was completed by June 1940. Agents for the Nazis were sent throughout Western and Eastern Europe on plundering missions, “but no city could match Paris when it came to the quantity and quality of art”.[2] By the end of June a note from General Wilhelm Keitel, German army chief of staff in Berlin, to General von Boeckelberg, German military commander of the city of Paris, stated “the Führer, in response to a report from the ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave an order that, excluding those belonging to the French State, all art objects and historical documents belonging to individuals, and Jews in particular, are to be put into safe keeping”. These objects were to be stored in the German Embassy, “in anticipation of peace treaty negotiations, at which point their fate would be finally determined”.[3]
In July 1940 the German Ambassador to France Otto Abetz and his staff organized a series of confiscations including the Seligmann Gallery at the Place Vendôme[4] at which point Northcote’s painting of Master Semon was taken. By mid-August Ambassador Abetz “conceived of the idea of official pillaging” and that the looted objects should be regarded as “prepayment and advance for war reparations”. Simultaneously the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) which had been founded by Alfred Rosenberg had steadily been gaining power since the invasion, and in October 1940 at the instigation of Reichsmarschall Herman Göring was granted control over the majority of art and objects that had been seized. This led to growing tensions between the ERR and the Embassy and was only resolved when the ERR raided the Schenker Transport Company. They impounded 200 crates of stolen paintings that the German Embassy had selected for shipping to Germany.[5] Northcote’s portrait of Master Semon was among this group. The Northcote along with the rest of the shipment were moved by the ERR to the Louvre by November 1940 for safekeeping. As looting activities continued space at the Louvre soon became inadequate, and everything was sent to the Jeu de Paume, a museum in the Tuileries Garden, which had become the main repository in Paris for everything confiscated. Here items were inventoried, photographed, and assigned unique ERR alphanumeric codes reflecting the collection owner’s name.[6] The Northcote was coded Sel. 5 which is still visible today on its stretcher and reverse of the frame.
At some point the Northcote was transported from the Jeu de Paume to its next recorded location in the salt mines above Altaussee in Austria which was the largest repository of Nazi-looted art. Interestingly only a small part of the ERR’s looted works were sent to Altaussee. Space instead was taken up by Hitler’s Linz collection intended to form the Führer Museum, the museums of Munich and Vienna’s treasures, and top collections from Austria in what was “possibly the largest collection of Western art ever assembled.” Further the most valued treasures were stored in Altaussee including Hubert and Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna as well as Vermeer’s The Art of Painting and The Astronomer.[7]Thus the art that came from Paris to Altaussee must have been regarded as among the most prized.
The majority of the Seligmann stock was sold off at auction. Their archives were burnt either by gallery staff or family members in order to prevent the Nazi’s gaining access. Arnold Seligmann was able to emigrate to New York in 1940 for the duration of the war. His son Jean Arnold Seligmann was executed by the Nazi’s in 1941 for his actions in the French resistance.[8]
The war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. When the Monuments Men (The Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the Allied Forces) arrived 8 days later on May 16th to the village of Altaussee it was held by only a handful of American infantry soldiers. What they discovered when they reached the mine was that as a result of 76 bomb blasts all 137 tunnels of the mine had been sealed by the retreating Nazi troops. It took until June 14th to clear all the passageways to find miraculously that not one piece of artwork had been irretrievably damaged.[9] George Stout who was in charge of the evacuation process managed to get one convoy out on June 16th before the sudden removal of transport and promised additional officers brought the entire operation to a halt. Astonishingly Northcote’s Master Semon was in that convoy which reached the just opened Munich Central Collecting Point on June 17th. Housed in the former Nazi Party offices of Munich, it was one of the largest buildings left standing after the war.
The convoy made up of 8 trucks contained a large number of the “top ERR pictures”. The day before the convoy arrived the situation at the Collecting Point was terrible. “Although a weatherproof room was ready and a registration system for incoming works had been devised, there was no steady guard unit assigned. The neighboring Führerbau (the Führer’s building) had been broken into, the communicating tunnels were far from secure, and there was still no fence – there was not even a telephone. Half the picture handlers had been rejected as Nazis, and others probably equally suspect, had quickly been hired from a Munich moving firm. Five hours before the trucks were due in, the guard detachment announced that it was leaving and would be replaced by another, which of course would not be familiar with the building.” Lieutenant Craig Hugh Smyth, an expert on Italian Renaissance art and curator from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. was in charge, and was forced to go to the American headquarters and fight for a guard battalion for that night.[10]
Although a truly chaotic situation, processing began and by June 20, 1945, the Northcote’s history and details had been catalogued on a “Property Card Art” and given the Munich number 216/1. The painting remained at the Collecting Point until July 11, 1946, when it was sent back to France and ultimately restituted to the Seligmann family. Arnold Seligmann had returned from exile in New York to Paris in the summer of 1945, but sadly died a few weeks later.[11] The Northcote is next recorded as being sold at auction in Paris in January 1951. It eventually became part of a private collection in Louisville, Kentucky, and then was given to a non-profit institution in Louisville from which it was deaccessioned in 2020. At some point after the 1946 restitution all knowledge of the past history of the painting was lost.
Northcote was known as a painter of portraits and in particular excelled at children’s portraits. He also painted historical, genre and animal scenes. In 1771 he came to London from Plymouth and entered the Royal Academy Schools. He worked as an assistant to Joshua Reynolds from 1771 – 1775. From 1777 – 1780 he was in Rome studying where he formed a deep appreciation for Correggio, the Italian Mannerists and the Roman Baroque. By 1781 he had permanently settled in London and had become a Royal Academician by 1787. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1773 – 1828, as well as the British Institution from 1806 – 1831.[12]
Paintings by the artist formed part of the permanent collections of museums in Chicago; Edinburgh; Exeter; Greenwich, United Kingdom; Indianapolis; Jackson Hole; London; Los Angeles; Manchester, New Hampshire; Manchester, United Kingdom; New Haven; Newgate; San Francisco; San Marino and Washington, D.C. among others.
Among his most accomplished portraits are ones dating from the period of this work the 1790s. A painted valentine perhaps best describes Northcote’s portrait of 5-year-old Master Semon with a Spaniel. Thematically the work is about love. This smiling child was obviously the apple of his father’s eye, but the painter has been similarly charmed. Northcote, a passionate dog owner throughout his life,[13] has the dog’s attentive stance echo these feelings which in turn are complemented by the boy’s embrace. The softness of the painted flesh and the texture of the boy’s hair are perhaps gleaned from the artist’s appreciation of Correggio. The “deliberately finely rendered hair, both in its subtle curls at his ears and its wispy out-of-placeness on top”[14] can be seen in a number of Northcote’s works. Master Semon is exquisitely dressed in a blue satin skeleton suit with pink trim, and the white lace collar is notable for its “delicate transparency”[15] His shoes are black with blue bows from which white socks peek out. The placement of the child on a bench covered with waves of red satin drapery on a porch overlooking an expansive sky, harks back to the dynastic tradition of the curtained structures under which royals sat on ceremonial occasions.[16] Although Master Semon’s life is a mystery, except for the few details described on the side panel of the trompe l’oeil box in the lower left of the painting, the compelling history of his portrait is among the most remarkable and precarious that we have ever encountered.
[1] “Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co.” at Dumbarton Oaks, doaks.org.
[2] Jonathan Petropoulos, Göring’s Man in Paris, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2021, p. 16.
[3] Hector Feliciano, The Lost Museum, Basicbooks, New York, 1997, p. 33.
[4] Ibid, p. 33.
[5] Ibid, pp. 34-36; and “Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume” at www.errproject.com.
[6] Hector Feliciano, op.cit., p. 36; and “Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg”, op.cit.
[7] Robert M. Edsel, The Monuments Men, Center Street, New York, 2009, p. 383; Jonathan Petropoulos, op.cit., p. 104; “Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg”, op.cit.; and Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, “Reconstructing the Record of Nazi Plunder”, 2015, www.errproject.com.
[8] “Andre Seligmann, Paris Art Dealer”, The New York Times, July 18, 1945, p. 27; Marilyn August, “France Returns Jewish Paintings,” AP News, December 14, 1994; “Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg,” op.cit.
[9] Robert M. Edsel, op.cit., pp. 381-384.
[10] Lynn H. Nichols, The Rape of Europa, Vintage Books, New York, 1995, pp. 372, 374.
[11] The New York Times, July 18, 1945, op.cit., p. 27.
[12] Biographical information taken from Ellis Waterhouse, “James Northcote” in The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters, Baron Publishing, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1981, pp. 258-259; and Mark Ledbury, James Northcote, History Painting and the Fables, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2014, pp. 67, 99, & 131.
[13] Mark Ledbury, ibid., p. 4.
[14] Ibid, p. 37.
[15] Ibid, p. 37.
[16] Lorne Campbell, Renaissance Portraits, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990. pp. 109, 115.