Controversy Over the "American Leonardo": Several Versions of La Belle Ferronniére Defy Definite Attribution
On January 28, 2010, an unknown American collector purchased a painting — best known by the name La Belle Ferronniére — for the princely sum of $1.5 million, claiming he had been enchanted by the “beautiful, powerful” work. The painting, evidently a portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, has long been the subject of bitter controversy. It is a copy or an alternate version of a painting of the same name in Paris, which was almost certainly the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The “American Leonardo,” as this alternate version came to be called, has a much murkier attribution history.
The Leonardo in the Louvre
The supposedly “original” version of La Belle Ferronniére has been definitively assigned to the canon of Leonardo da Vinci and currently hangs in the Louvre. Its more common title is Lady with an Ermine, and it is thought to be a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, another of Ludovico Sforza’s mistresses.
Also in the Louvre’s collection is a second La Belle, usually called Portrait of an Unknown Woman. Like the American Leonardo, the painting is thought to portray Lucrezia Crivelli. This work is generally attributed not to Leonardo, but to his Milanese circle. However, it is a copy or version of this painting that was at the epicenter of an infamous trial in the 1920s.
Mrs. Hahn and the Leonardo Controversy
In 1920, a version of La Belle Ferronniére was in the possession of Mrs. Andrée Lardoux Hahn and her husband Harry; they had received it as a wedding present. They had planned to sell the painting as an authentic Leonardo to the Kansas City Art Institute for a quarter of a million dollars. Getting wind of this, art dealer Joseph Duveen told a newspaper reporter that the painting was just a copy of the Louvre original, and not a Leonardo at all. The art dealer’s opinion caused enough doubt on the part of the Art Institute to sabotage the sale, and a furious Mrs. Hahn sued for defamation.
A Trial, But No Decision
The case finally went to court in 1929. Duveen had expert opinion on his side; the defense called many studied art critics and professionals to the stand to testify that the Hahn painting was simply a copy of the superior La Belle hanging in the Louvre. But despite the parade of experts, only three jurors sided with the defense, and the trial ended in a hung jury, though the judge refused to dismiss the case. Duveen then settled out of court for $60,000, and the status of the Hahn “Leonardo” remained in limbo.
