Augustin Blondel de Gagny

Augustin Blondel de Gagny (French pronunciation: [oɡystɛ̃ blɔ̃dɛl də ɡaɲi]; March 1695 – 9 July 1776[1]) was a French connoisseur of the arts and a collector whose series of Paris auction sales, which took place soon after his death[2] were high-water marks of the history of collecting in 18th-century France.[3] Paintings and sculptures that passed through Blondel de Gagny's collection are dispersed in many of the world's great museums. The prints from his collection are less easily traced.

  1. ^ Louis Clément de Ris, Les amateurs d'autrefois 1877:344; quoting the notice of his burial, 10 July 1776 in the Mercure de France :351.
  2. ^ Catalogue de Tableaux Precieux... qui composent le Cabinet de feu M. Blondel de Gagny, Trésorier-Général de la Caisse des Amortissements. Par Pierre Remy, Paris, 10 December 1776 - 22 January 1777 (Lugt 2616); the sales actually occupied sessions in two blocks with a break at Christmas, 10 to 24 December 1776 and 8 to 22 January 1777.
  3. ^ Louis Clément de Ris, Les Amateurs d'Autrefois, vol. I Paris, 1877:343-58 is still the only full-length study.