Author Description

After a series of decorative arts and furniture auctions in the 1970s to recoup a good portion of his $4,000,000 outlay for the company, what Duveen pieces remain today in the Norton Simon collections number around 130 objects, primarily paintings, a handful of sculpture, a few porcelains, and a cape purportedly worn by Charles IV of Spain. Of this assemblage, only about two dozen pieces are regularly on permanent display, owing to their condition, the type of restoration that the paintings underwent under the Duveen conservators' hands, or their dubious attributions. But as a whole, they offer an intriguing historical look at the infamous figure of Joseph Duveen and his eponymous firm that lived on 25 years after his death, as well as the state of the art market and art restoration in America at mid-twentieth century. And it also resonates with Mr. Simon's shrewd style of acquiring entire floundering-but-viable businesses, and building them into thriving enterprises such as Hunts Foods, McCalls Publishing, and Canada Dry. In a step that he would repeat more than once while assembling his outstanding art collection, with his purchase of Duveen lock, stock and barrel, Norton Simon planted his foot squarely in the market for old masters and began seriously his quest to build a collection that included earlier European art, especially early Italian art. This exhibition examines his remarkable and stunning maneuver 50 years in hindsight, and reveals his uncanny strategy that ultimately brought to Pasadena important Italian works by Luini, Francia, Vincenzo Catena, Antoniazzo Romano, as well as other French, Spanish and northern works by Gerard David, Ribera, Rubens Fragonard, and Rigaud.