Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1738-1806 Paris)

Cupid and Psyche

Details

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1738-1806 Paris)
Cupid and Psyche
with inscription 'h.^é Fragonard.'
black chalk
6 7/8 x 9? in. (17.5 x 23.8 cm.)

Provenance

E. Desperet (L. 721); Hôtel Drouot, Delbergue-Cormont and Clément, Paris, 7-10 June 1865, lot 395 ('L'Amour s'approchant d'une jeune fille couchée, d'aprés un tableau de Guido Cagnacci. A la pierre noire. - Ce dessin a été gravé par Saint-Non'; 51 [?] FF to Herzog [sic]).
T. Hertzog; Hôtel Drouot, Delestre, Danlon and Delisle, Paris, 3-8 April 1876, lot 1419 (described as above; sold for 16 FF).
The artist J.J. Peoli (L. 2020); American Art Galleries, New York, 8 May 1894, lot 236 ('Cupid approaching a sleeping girl. From a painting by E. [sic] Cagnacci. Pencil. This was engraved by St. Non').
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 29 June 1971, lot 139.

Literature

P.G. Pisani, Guido Cagnacci, Rimini, 1986, under no. 39.
P. Rosenberg and B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Panopticon italiano: Un diario di viaggio ritrovato 1759-1761, Rome, 2000, p. 406, under no. 294.

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Lot Essay

Another drawing after the same prototype is in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (Rosenberg and Brejon de Lavergnée, op. cit.), which is inscribed 'Guido Cagnacci/ Palazzo[?] Zambeccari, Bologna'. This has been traditionally connected to The Rape of Lucretia by Guido Cagnacci, now in the Accademia di San Luca, Rome (Pisani, op. cit., no. 39). Numerous versions, as well as copies, of that painting exist. Fragonard's composition, however, clearly shows Cupid and Psyche and Rosenberg and Brejon de Lavergnée suggest that it may derive from a painting by Felice Ficherelli which was also in the collection and then thought to be by Cagnacci himself (Rosenberg and Brejon de Lavergnée, op. cit.).

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