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Lot Essay
Marguerite Gérard moved from Grasse to Paris in 1775 where she joined her sister Marie-Anne and her brother-in-law, Jean-Honoré Fragonard in their quarters at the Louvre. She was to become Fragonard's protégé, a privilege that would allow her some artistic training which, as woman, would otherwise have been denied her. While Fragonard's tutelage was important to her technical development, it was her interest in Dutch masters of the 17th century that truly characterized her work. It was from these "conversation pieces" that she drew inspiration for her sentimental themes and learned to indulge in meticulous detail.
Gérard had established a reputation for herself by the mid-1780s and was considered among the leading female artists of her time, along with Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. She was a regular contributor to the Salon from 1799 to 1824, after the restriction on women exhibitors was lifted. Her work was further popularized through engravings. The two present lots are typical of the types of paintings that the artist exhibited at the dawn of the 19th Century. They depict the idealized private world of bourgeois and upper-class women.
The present painting is one of three known versions of this subject painted by Marguerite Gérard. Three versions are recorded by Sarah Wells-Robertson (op. cit.): a painting on canvas that was exhibited at the Salon of 1804 (Robertson, no. 70, 62 x 51 cm.); this version on panel (Robertson, no. 70a, 64 x 53 cm.); and a smaller version on canvas (Robertson, no.70b, 26 x 20 cm.). A fourth version of this composition was offered at auction, Sotheby's, New York, 28 May 1999, lot 207. It is possible that the latter is an unrecorded painting of this subject but based on its quality it may well be the lost Salon painting of 1804, executed on panel and not on canvas as catalogued by Robertson.
Our painting is unmistakably the second version of the 1804 Salon picture. It has the differentiating characteristics mentioned by Robertson- the bow on the bodice worn by the lady standing and the swept back fringe of her hair. This painting also dates to 1804, at which time Robertson describes Gérard as, "at the peak of her career, and the Grande dame of French genre painting". She goes on to say, "La bonne nouvelle is a quintessential example of the Gérardian genre picture" (op. cit.).
Gérard had established a reputation for herself by the mid-1780s and was considered among the leading female artists of her time, along with Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. She was a regular contributor to the Salon from 1799 to 1824, after the restriction on women exhibitors was lifted. Her work was further popularized through engravings. The two present lots are typical of the types of paintings that the artist exhibited at the dawn of the 19th Century. They depict the idealized private world of bourgeois and upper-class women.
The present painting is one of three known versions of this subject painted by Marguerite Gérard. Three versions are recorded by Sarah Wells-Robertson (op. cit.): a painting on canvas that was exhibited at the Salon of 1804 (Robertson, no. 70, 62 x 51 cm.); this version on panel (Robertson, no. 70a, 64 x 53 cm.); and a smaller version on canvas (Robertson, no.70b, 26 x 20 cm.). A fourth version of this composition was offered at auction, Sotheby's, New York, 28 May 1999, lot 207. It is possible that the latter is an unrecorded painting of this subject but based on its quality it may well be the lost Salon painting of 1804, executed on panel and not on canvas as catalogued by Robertson.
Our painting is unmistakably the second version of the 1804 Salon picture. It has the differentiating characteristics mentioned by Robertson- the bow on the bodice worn by the lady standing and the swept back fringe of her hair. This painting also dates to 1804, at which time Robertson describes Gérard as, "at the peak of her career, and the Grande dame of French genre painting". She goes on to say, "La bonne nouvelle is a quintessential example of the Gérardian genre picture" (op. cit.).