Comte de Pourtalès Collection

The Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (1776–1855), was a Swiss-French banker who served as Chamberlain to the King of Prussia and was awarded the title of Count by King Frederick William III, who ruled Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the Holy Roman Empire.[1]

The collection was largely held at Hôtel de Pourtalès, his hôtel particulier (essentially a grand townhouse) on Rue Tronchet in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The collection, which started with a vase,[2] included the Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals and works by Bronzino, Rembrandt, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and a Sandro Botticelli portrait.[3] In 1825, he donated a mummy and coffin he acquired from the Thedenat-Duvent sale, to the Berlin Museum.[1]

In February and March 1865, ten years after his death, his collection was auctioned off in Paris in accordance with his will. The majority of his collection was photographed and published in a large folio catalog by Goupil & Cie.[4][5] The Laughing Cavalier was purchased by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (who outbid Baron James Mayer de Rothschild). William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney bought some of the important Egyptian objects. Sir Charles Thomas Newton spent 60,919 francs on bronzes and vases for the British Museum, and 47,000 francs on Giustiniani's Apollo.[1]

Paintings

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  Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals
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  Portrait of a Young Man with a Book by Agnolo Bronzino, 1540
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  Saint Philip Neri, by Carlo Dolci, c. 1645
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  "The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian", by Fra Angelico, c. 1438–1440[6]
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  Portrait of a Youth. by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482–1485[6]
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  Allegory of Love, by the Workshop of Titian, c. 1520–1540[6]
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  Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Massys, c. 1520–1525[6]
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  The Apostle Paul, by Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1657[6]
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  Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, by Battista Dossi, c. 1519–1530
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  The Landscape Painter by François Boucher
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  Bearing of the Cross with St. Veronica, by Lucas van Leyden, c. 1510s
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  Henri d'Albret King of Navarre, by Léonard Limousin, 1556
• 
  Anne de Pisseleu Duchesse d'Étampes, by Corneille de Lyon, c. 1535–40

Sculpture and pottery

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  Head of Apollo, that was once in the collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani, Roman copy of c. 120–140
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  Head of the Borghese Hera
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  Apollo, holding his (lost) bow in the right hand and a (lost) laurel branch in the left hand
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  Mercury, holding a lost object, probably a tortoise, 1st century BC
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  Funerary stele of Jason, c. 100 BC
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  Sacrifice to Demeter (Ceres) and Core (Proserpine), c. 340–320 BC
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  Actaeon attacked by his hounds by Dolon Painter
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  Dionysos holding a kantharos, c. 490–480 BC
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  Dionysos and Ploutos surrounded by satyrs and maenads, c. 370–360 BC
• 
  Peleus wrestling Thetis and holding her as she transforms into a snake, c. 460 BC
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  The actor Xanthias, standing next to a statuette of Heracles, c. 350–340 BC
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  Zeus wielding the thunderbolt in his right hand, c. 480–470 BC
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  The Destruction of the Hosts of Pharaoh (front), by Jacques Courtois, early 17th century
• 
  The Destruction of the Hosts of Pharaoh (back), by Jacques Courtois, early 17th century
• 
  Dish with Achelous and Theseus, by Maestro Domenego da Venezia, c. 1550–70

Sources

Further reading

• Pourtalès-Gorgier. Catalogue des Objets d'Art et de haute curiosité, antiques, du moyen age et de la renaissance, qui cornposent les Collections de feu M. le Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (in French), Paris 1865

• Pourtalès-Gorgier, James-Alexandre, comte de at the National Gallery of Art