Un Guillon-Lethière pour Worcester
The Worcester Art Museum has acquired Guillaume Guillon-Lethière's painting "Lucien Bonaparte contemplant Alexandrine de Bleschamp Jouberthon" (1802), which depicts the second brother of Napoleon with his second wife. The work had been on loan to the museum from London dealers Lowell Libson and Johnny Yarker, who had purchased it at a Christie's New York auction in October 2019 after it resurfaced in a Portland sale in 2005. The painting was featured prominently in the 2024-2025 Louvre exhibition "Guillon-Lethière. Né à la Guadeloupe," where it was reunited with a portrait of its patron Lucien Bonaparte.
This acquisition matters because it secures for a major American museum a significant work by Guillon-Lethière, a French Neoclassical painter born in Guadeloupe whose career has received renewed scholarly attention. The painting's journey—from a provincial auction to a high-profile Louvre exhibition and finally to a permanent museum collection—illustrates the dynamic market for rediscovered historical works. It also highlights the role of dealers like Libson and Yarker in placing important pieces in public institutions, and underscores the growing interest in artists from France's colonial territories.