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Femme à la colombe
Details
JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD (GRASSE 1732-1806 PARIS)
Femme à la colombe
avec inscriptions '#/ 3.31'(verso du montage, à la plume et encre brune)
graphite, pinceau, lavis brun
45 x 34,5 cm (17 ¾ x 13 ½ in.)
Femme à la colombe
avec inscriptions '#/ 3.31'(verso du montage, à la plume et encre brune)
graphite, pinceau, lavis brun
45 x 34,5 cm (17 ¾ x 13 ½ in.)
Provenance
Vente anonyme, hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 31 mai 1790, lot 324, 'Une femme à une croisée caresse un pigeon' (selon Ananoff, voir infra).
François Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880) ; sa vente, hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-16 avril 1880, lot 198 (adjugé 730 francs à Hecht).
Georges Mühlbacher (-1906), Paris ; sa vente, galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15-18 mai 1899, lot 127 (adjugé 19,000 francs).
Baronne Edmond-James de Rothschild (1853-1935), née Adelheid von Rothschild ; sa vente, hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15-16 juin 1933, lot 11 (adjugé 92,000 francs).
Henri de Rothschild (1872-1947) (selon le catalogue d'exposition de 1931, voir infra).
Marque estampée du monteur Adolphe Stoll (XXe siècle), Paris (L. 2786).
Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854-1944), Paris ;
Confisqué auprès de celui-ci à la Banque de France (coffre 63) par le Devisenschutzkommando suite à l’occupation allemande de la France (probablement ERR inv. R 133), Paris, le 29 octobre 1940 ;
Transféré au Jeu de Paume, Paris ;
Transféré aux mines de sel d'Altaussee, Autriche, le 27 octobre 1944 ;
Retrouvé par les Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section et transféré au Munich Central Collecting Point, Bavière (MCCP inv. 1082⁄7), le 26 juin 1945 ;
Retourné en France, le 27 mars 1946 ;
Restitué aux ayants droit d'Arthur Georges Veil-Picard, en avril 1948 ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille.
François Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880) ; sa vente, hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-16 avril 1880, lot 198 (adjugé 730 francs à Hecht).
Georges Mühlbacher (-1906), Paris ; sa vente, galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15-18 mai 1899, lot 127 (adjugé 19,000 francs).
Baronne Edmond-James de Rothschild (1853-1935), née Adelheid von Rothschild ; sa vente, hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15-16 juin 1933, lot 11 (adjugé 92,000 francs).
Henri de Rothschild (1872-1947) (selon le catalogue d'exposition de 1931, voir infra).
Marque estampée du monteur Adolphe Stoll (XXe siècle), Paris (L. 2786).
Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854-1944), Paris ;
Confisqué auprès de celui-ci à la Banque de France (coffre 63) par le Devisenschutzkommando suite à l’occupation allemande de la France (probablement ERR inv. R 133), Paris, le 29 octobre 1940 ;
Transféré au Jeu de Paume, Paris ;
Transféré aux mines de sel d'Altaussee, Autriche, le 27 octobre 1944 ;
Retrouvé par les Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section et transféré au Munich Central Collecting Point, Bavière (MCCP inv. 1082⁄7), le 26 juin 1945 ;
Retourné en France, le 27 mars 1946 ;
Restitué aux ayants droit d'Arthur Georges Veil-Picard, en avril 1948 ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille.
Literature
R. Portalis, Honoré Fragonard, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris, 1889, p. 305.
H. Algoud, Fragonard, Monaco, 1941, pl. 88 (avec provenance erronée).
G. Grappe, Fragonard, Monaco, 1946, pl. 122
F. Fosca, Les dessins de Fragonard, Lausanne, 1954, n°17.
L. Réau, Fragonard, Bruxelles, 1956, p. 203.
A. Ananoff, L’œuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Paris, 1961-1970, I, n°53, pl. 31 ; 1963, II, p. 295.
H. Algoud, Fragonard, Monaco, 1941, pl. 88 (avec provenance erronée).
G. Grappe, Fragonard, Monaco, 1946, pl. 122
F. Fosca, Les dessins de Fragonard, Lausanne, 1954, n°17.
L. Réau, Fragonard, Bruxelles, 1956, p. 203.
A. Ananoff, L’œuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Paris, 1961-1970, I, n°53, pl. 31 ; 1963, II, p. 295.
Exhibited
Paris, Georges Petit, Exposition Chardin et Fragonard, juin-juillet 1907, n°204.
Berlin, Académie des Arts, Exposition d'Art français au XVIIIe siècle, janvier-mars 1910, n°171.
Paris, Hôtel de Sagan, chez M. J. Seligmann et fils, Dessins de Fragonard, mai 1931, n°14 (catalogue par Louis Réau).
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Les chefs-d'oeuvre des collections privées retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération Artistique et les Services Alliés, 1946, n°113.
Berne, musée des Beaux-Arts, Fragonard, 13 juin-29 août 1954, n°101, pl. XXI.
Besançon, musée des Beaux-Arts, Exposition J.-H. Fragonard : peintures & dessins en commémoration du cent-cinquantenaire de sa mort 1806-1956, 1956, n°13.
Berlin, Académie des Arts, Exposition d'Art français au XVIIIe siècle, janvier-mars 1910, n°171.
Paris, Hôtel de Sagan, chez M. J. Seligmann et fils, Dessins de Fragonard, mai 1931, n°14 (catalogue par Louis Réau).
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Les chefs-d'oeuvre des collections privées retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération Artistique et les Services Alliés, 1946, n°113.
Berne, musée des Beaux-Arts, Fragonard, 13 juin-29 août 1954, n°101, pl. XXI.
Besançon, musée des Beaux-Arts, Exposition J.-H. Fragonard : peintures & dessins en commémoration du cent-cinquantenaire de sa mort 1806-1956, 1956, n°13.
Further Details
JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD, WOMAN WITH A DOVE, GRAPHITE, BRUSH AND BROWN WASH
With regard to another large multi-figure interior scene of similar dimensions, in landscape format and executed in the same technique, now in a private collection, Pierre Rosenberg notes that 'Fragonard makes use of every nuance of bistre, exploiting all its possibilities with scarcely concealed rigor', and dates the sheet to around 1780 (Fragonard, exh. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1987-1988, no. 279). This stylistic comparison leads us to date Woman with a Dove to the same decade, a period of the artist’s maturity, a few years after his return from Italy in 1774. The manner in which the wash is applied more densely in the young woman’s hair and more softly to suggest the folds of her garments also recalls the celebrated study of The Kiss from the former Ronald and Estée Lauder collection (Christie’s, London, 2 July 2013, lot 59). Once again, the sheet is of identical dimensions but used in landscape format.
Another version of this Woman with a Dove, executed with firmer, more deliberate brushwork and more pronounced detailing, comes from the former Delagarde and Aymonier collections in Paris and is now housed in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (Ananoff, 1961-1970, op. cit., I, no. 54). Ananoff considered it to be a copy of the present drawing.
While some of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s drawings are preparatory for paintings, they are few in number, less than ten percent of the drawn corpus, according to Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey (Fragonard. Drawing Triumphant. Works from New York Collections, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 16). This large wash study appears to belong to that category, namely an autonomous drawing of great presence, the subject not being known in painted form. The rapidity of the gesture, what Charles-Nicolas Cochin described as the 'fire of imagination, transposed directly onto paper, allows Fragonard to create rich textural effects through the use of brown wash, closely akin to the impasto effects he so cherished in painting.
The drawing belonged to Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880), a great collector of Fragonard’s paintings and drawings, and subsequently to Georges Muhlbächer (d.1906), whose collection included some ten drawings by Fragonard, a portion of which was sold in 1899. The Woman with a Dove then entered the Rothschild collections before joining that of Arthur Veil-Picard.
With regard to another large multi-figure interior scene of similar dimensions, in landscape format and executed in the same technique, now in a private collection, Pierre Rosenberg notes that 'Fragonard makes use of every nuance of bistre, exploiting all its possibilities with scarcely concealed rigor', and dates the sheet to around 1780 (Fragonard, exh. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1987-1988, no. 279). This stylistic comparison leads us to date Woman with a Dove to the same decade, a period of the artist’s maturity, a few years after his return from Italy in 1774. The manner in which the wash is applied more densely in the young woman’s hair and more softly to suggest the folds of her garments also recalls the celebrated study of The Kiss from the former Ronald and Estée Lauder collection (Christie’s, London, 2 July 2013, lot 59). Once again, the sheet is of identical dimensions but used in landscape format.
Another version of this Woman with a Dove, executed with firmer, more deliberate brushwork and more pronounced detailing, comes from the former Delagarde and Aymonier collections in Paris and is now housed in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (Ananoff, 1961-1970, op. cit., I, no. 54). Ananoff considered it to be a copy of the present drawing.
While some of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s drawings are preparatory for paintings, they are few in number, less than ten percent of the drawn corpus, according to Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey (Fragonard. Drawing Triumphant. Works from New York Collections, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 16). This large wash study appears to belong to that category, namely an autonomous drawing of great presence, the subject not being known in painted form. The rapidity of the gesture, what Charles-Nicolas Cochin described as the 'fire of imagination, transposed directly onto paper, allows Fragonard to create rich textural effects through the use of brown wash, closely akin to the impasto effects he so cherished in painting.
The drawing belonged to Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880), a great collector of Fragonard’s paintings and drawings, and subsequently to Georges Muhlbächer (d.1906), whose collection included some ten drawings by Fragonard, a portion of which was sold in 1899. The Woman with a Dove then entered the Rothschild collections before joining that of Arthur Veil-Picard.
Brought to you by
Pierre Etienne
International Director, Deputy Chairman of Christie's France, Old Master Paintings