Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully

Painted in 1759 by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, the portrait depicts Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully. After the sitter’s death in 1779, the work passed by inheritance to his second daughter, Louise de La Live, comtesse de Fezensac, then to her son, Raymond Aimery de Montesquiou, duc de Montesquiou-Fezensac. It descended within the family to Oriane Henriette de Montesquiou, vicomtesse de Goyon, who owned it by 1874 and lent it to exhibitions in Paris in 1874 and 1885.

By 1927 it belonged to Alexandre Léon Joseph, comte de Laborde, and by January 1937 was with Duveen Brothers. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation acquired it in 1942 and donated it to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 1946.

The painting Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully, an oil on canvas portrait by Jean‑Baptiste Greuze completed in 1759, is presently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Its provenance traces from the sitter to his daughter and grandson, then through several French aristocratic owners to the vicomtesse Charles de Goyon, who exhibited it in Paris in 1874 and again in 1885. The work was sold to Duveen Brothers in 1937, acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1942, and gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1946.

Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully (1759) is a portrait by Jean‑Baptiste Greuze that exemplifies mid‑18th‑century French portraiture, a genre in which the artist combined Rococo elegance with Enlightenment moralism. The work remained in the sitter’s family until the late 19th century, was shown at the 1874 Paris exhibition of the vicomtesse de Goyon and later lent to the 1885 Salon, signaling renewed interest in Greuze’s oeuvre. Documentation of its provenance follows a documented chain from the sitter to his descendants, through Duveen Brothers to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and finally to the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in 1946.

Scholars such as Munhall have traced this lineage, situating the painting within Greuze’s broader corpus of aristocratic portraiture.

After leaving the family of its original sitter, the portrait remained in private hands until its acquisition by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1942, which donated it to the National Gallery of Art in 1946, cementing its status as a recognized work of Jean‑Baptiste Greuze. Its earlier provenance, traced through the descendants of Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully and a series of Parisian exhibitions in 1874 and 1885, demonstrated sustained public interest. The painting’s inclusion in major institutional collections and scholarly catalogues, such as those by Munhall and Eisler, has contributed to a reevaluation of Greuze’s portraiture within the broader context of 18th‑century French art.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze created this oil on canvas portrait, Ange Laurent de La Live de Jully, around 1759. The painting exemplifies the Rococo movement, a prevalent artistic style of the era. It captures a specific individual, presenting him in a manner characteristic of Greuze's refined approach to portraiture.