268 - FERDINAND DE BRAEKELEER DE OUDE (1792-1883)

FERDINAND DE BRAEKELEER DE OUDE (1792-1883) 'Le ménage heureux', 1853. Oil on panel (mahogany). Signed and dated 'Ferdinand De Braekeleer F(ecit) / Antwerp 1853'. Overpaintings. With artist's label on back with title, date and signature on back. Ferdinand de Braekeleer created this scene together with its counterpart/ pendant 'Le ménage triste'. Both paintings were immediately shipped to the U.S. to be sold there at The Free Belgian Gallery of Paintings in New York, managed by the painter's son Ferdinand de Braekeleer the Younger. The gallery was a joint investment by father and son to promote Belgian art across the ocean and find a new market (cf. Baetens 2023, p. 25-54). Both pendants were purchased by the philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran who later founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Provenance: The Free Belgian Gallery of Paintings, New York William Wilson Corcoran Collection Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Loan Smithsonian Institute, Washington, inv. L. 1971.33.4 New York, Sotheby Parke Bernett, 3.5.1979, lot 14 Willy De Jonge, Antwerp, 1985 Private collection Antwerp Dimensions: 72.5 x 57.5 cm (95 x 80.5 cm) Literature: Dirk Baetens, Selling the Belgian School: The Belgian Gallery in New York (1852-55), Getty Research Journal 17 (6), pp. 25-54, ill. p. 42.