Best Finds: Charles Louis Baugniet

A short time ago I stumbled across a fine painting at a local antique sale. Not knowing the artist, but recognizing the quality of the work, I took a chance and made the purchase.

A short time later I was able to unscramble the signature. It appeared to be the work of Charles Louis Baugniet.

Baugniet (Belgium 1814-1886) was a prominent artist in the mid 1800s. In the early 1840s, he was named court painter for the Belgian royal family. He later made his mark producing fine prints and portraits of major figures such as Dickens, Hector Berlioz, and many others.

Shortly thereafter, much of the work in portraiture was superseded by photography, putting artists like Baugniet out of work.

Looking for new opportunities, Baugniet moved to Paris in 1860. He settled on producing the gently amusing and romantic genre paintings of the Second French Empire period, which were highly sought after by the upper classes in Europe and elsewhere.

His work came to the attention of a major American dealer by the name of George A. Lucas (long before American Graffiti and Star Wars). Lucas lived in France, buying art for the newly wealthy American upper classes. One such patron was William Thomas Walters of Baltimore, whose collection would eventually become the basis for the Walters Art Museum.

Walter’s art collecting rival in Baltimore was a coffee magnate named Col. J. Stricker Jenkins. Jenkins was another Lucas customer.

According to Lucas’s diaries, a Baugniet at that time cost as much as 6000 francs, depending on the number of figures depicted.  Jenkins was known to purchase the largest available pieces. By 1870, he purchased a Baugniet painting that was listed in his 1870 self-published art catalog as “The Erring Daughter.”

In 1876, Jenkins took ill, and his entire collection was sold at auction in New York, including the Baugniet, which sold for $280 to someone noted in the auction catalog as Chas (short for Charles) Unger. The total sale grossed $60,025, making it one of the largest art auctions in American history up to that time.

After that, the Erring Daughter was lost to history – or was it?

After a bit of research, I believe the work I acquired is likely to be the same work that sat in Jenkins’ collection.

On Oct. 31, 2018, the painting will be sold again in New York. It is listed at Christie’s European Fine Art Auction, Part II, with a $30k-$50k estimate. However, due to the lack of visual evidence, it will be sold as a fine example of Baugniet’s work – not as the lost Jenkins painting. They describe it by the title “The Repentant Daughter” to reflect the subject of the painting.

Why do I think the painting is likely “The Erring Daughter”?

This is based on a bit of research. If you’re not fascinated by web searches, stop reading here and marvel at this fantastic find. A slightly larger Baugniet sold for $550k in 2000 at Christie’s. Prices for Genre paintings are down, but this is still one of the largest works by Baugniet to come to the market.

Back to the web search. I discovered a great online resource – the Smithsonian’s Pre-1877 Art Exhibition (US and Canada) database. This listed a number of Baugniet works, but only one title fit the theme of my Baugniet, which features a young woman with her head in her mothers lap, clearly seeking forgiveness.

Then I looked for pictures – many such works were featured in illustrations at that time. The best source may be Art Treasures in America (Edward Strahan, George Barrie, Phil. 1879), which documented many collections of the era. But timing was bad – the Jenkins collections was dismantled before it was written. It features a few Baugniets, but not mine.

Finally I looked for the Jenkins self-published catalog. There’s a copy at the Johns Hopkins art library, and alas, no illustrations. (Thanks to Paul Espinosa for the images.)

So I’m left with a mystery – the evidence points to Jenkins, but there’s no knock out blow, so the jury is still out. Only the bidders will decide what this painting is now worth, as always, when it hits the auction block again in a couple of weeks.