Illustration of one of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine: The crow, the gazelle, the tortoise and the rat (I)

Details

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Paris 1686-1755 Beauvais)
Illustration of one of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine: The crow, the gazelle, the tortoise and the rat (I)
signed and dated 'JB. Oudry / 1733'
brush and black ink, grey wash, heightened with white, on blue paper, with fictive mount
12¼ x 10 in. (31 x 25.3 cm.)

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Jean-Louis Regnard de Montenault, around 1751 .
Jean-Jacques de Bure, by 1828; A.-L. Potier, Paris 1-18 December 1853, part of lot 344 (1800 FF to Thibaudeau).
Count Antoine Thibaudeau, Paris, by whom
Possibly given to the actress Mme Doche, by whom sold with the rest of the series for 2,500 FF to
The bookseller Fontaine, by whom sold with the rest of the series for 5,000 FF to
Félix Solar; Charles Pillet, Paris, 19 November-8 December 1860, part of lot 627 (6,100 FF to Cléder).
Baron Isidore Taylor, Paris.
The booksellers Morgand and Fatout, Paris, around 1876.
Emile Péreire, Paris.
Louis Olry-Roederer, Reims.
with the Rosenbach Company, New York, 1923.
Raphaël Esmérian; Palais Galliera, Paris, 6 June 1973, part of lot 46.

Literature

H.N. Opperman, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, New York and London, 1977, II, p. 707 , no. D458.

Engraved

in reverse for the Fables of La Fontaine, fable CCXXXVIII, pl. I.

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Lot Essay

This and the following lot belong to a series of 276 drawings executed by the artist between 1729 and 1734 to illustrate the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine. Assembled in two albums, the series was published around 1755-59 after the drawings had been purchased by the collector Jean-Louis Regnard de Montenault (d. 1776).
The present sheet and the following lot illustrate the same fable: The crow, the gazelle, the tortoise and the rat. For another drawing illustrating the same fable, see Christie's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 153.

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