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Lot Essay
This image of Love inspiring Art depicts Cupid whispering words of guidance into the ear of Sappho (born circa 600 B.C.), the beautiful poetess from the isle of Lesbos, who was celebrated for the fervor and freedom of her passions as much as for the nine books of lyrical verse that she composed. Only two fragments of her poetry have survived, but their elegance and originality seem to justify the praise of the ancients -- Horace among them -- who so highly regarded her genius that she became known as 'the tenth Muse'.
Both Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Pierre Rosenberg have dated the Portanova Sappho to circa 1780, the very moment when Fragonard began experimenting in a Neoclassical idiom. Among the other paintings from this period are The Dream of Plutarch (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen; Cuzin, op. cit., no. 361), and the allegories with romantic themes that are among the artist's greatest late works: The Invocation to Love, The Fountain of Love and The Sacrifice of the Rose, all of which exist in multiple versions. Fragonard's Neoclassicism eschews the sweet archaizing of Vien and the austerity of David in favor of a smoky, nocturnal sensuality; his example inspired advanced artists of the next generation, including Prud'hon and Girodet, and prefigured early 19th-century Romanticism. His fluency in this new language is apparent in the figure of Sappho: the laurel-crowned poetess is sweet-faced and accessible but her marmoreal flesh is flawless, like a Greek sculpture, and she is bathed in a sepulcral, almost lunar light. Intimately acquainted with the art and culture of the classical past, Fragonard always infused his vision of Antiquity with a vitality that gives it immediacy and life.
Sappho inspired by Cupid must have achieved a considerable success, since Fragonard repeated the composition several times -- identically and in variations -- and it was engraved and often copied. The Portanova Sappho is the best preserved of the extant versions, but another, formerly in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection (Cuzin, op. cit., no. 355; offered for sale at Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1999, lot 75), is so similar in size and format as to make it impossible to assign references in 18th-century sales catalogues to one or the other with any certainty. A third version (ibid., no. 357) is known only from poor photographs: it looks weaker than the others and may be an old copy. A lovely small sketch of the subject en grisaille formerly in the collection of Eudoxe Marcille resurfaced about 15 years ago in a private collection in Europe (ibid., no. 358), but the version that was engraved by Angelique Papavoine in 1788 has been lost since 1808; it was first recorded in the collection of the Marquis de Véri (sale, Paris, 12 December 1785, lot 38). Both the inscription on the engraving (ibid., no. L10) and the catalogue of Véri's sale are specific in identifying the subject of the painting as Sappho, but both print and painting included one small detail absent from all of the surviving versions of the composition: Cupid hands Sappho one of his arrows with which to record his inspiring words. An earlier genre painting by Fragonard, now lost, was engraved in 1777 under the title The Favorable Inspiration (ibid., no. L6); it is almost identical in composition to Sappho inspired by Cupid, except presented in contemporary dress, with the poetess holding a quill and wearing fashionable costume.
Both Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Pierre Rosenberg have dated the Portanova Sappho to circa 1780, the very moment when Fragonard began experimenting in a Neoclassical idiom. Among the other paintings from this period are The Dream of Plutarch (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen; Cuzin, op. cit., no. 361), and the allegories with romantic themes that are among the artist's greatest late works: The Invocation to Love, The Fountain of Love and The Sacrifice of the Rose, all of which exist in multiple versions. Fragonard's Neoclassicism eschews the sweet archaizing of Vien and the austerity of David in favor of a smoky, nocturnal sensuality; his example inspired advanced artists of the next generation, including Prud'hon and Girodet, and prefigured early 19th-century Romanticism. His fluency in this new language is apparent in the figure of Sappho: the laurel-crowned poetess is sweet-faced and accessible but her marmoreal flesh is flawless, like a Greek sculpture, and she is bathed in a sepulcral, almost lunar light. Intimately acquainted with the art and culture of the classical past, Fragonard always infused his vision of Antiquity with a vitality that gives it immediacy and life.
Sappho inspired by Cupid must have achieved a considerable success, since Fragonard repeated the composition several times -- identically and in variations -- and it was engraved and often copied. The Portanova Sappho is the best preserved of the extant versions, but another, formerly in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection (Cuzin, op. cit., no. 355; offered for sale at Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1999, lot 75), is so similar in size and format as to make it impossible to assign references in 18th-century sales catalogues to one or the other with any certainty. A third version (ibid., no. 357) is known only from poor photographs: it looks weaker than the others and may be an old copy. A lovely small sketch of the subject en grisaille formerly in the collection of Eudoxe Marcille resurfaced about 15 years ago in a private collection in Europe (ibid., no. 358), but the version that was engraved by Angelique Papavoine in 1788 has been lost since 1808; it was first recorded in the collection of the Marquis de Véri (sale, Paris, 12 December 1785, lot 38). Both the inscription on the engraving (ibid., no. L10) and the catalogue of Véri's sale are specific in identifying the subject of the painting as Sappho, but both print and painting included one small detail absent from all of the surviving versions of the composition: Cupid hands Sappho one of his arrows with which to record his inspiring words. An earlier genre painting by Fragonard, now lost, was engraved in 1777 under the title The Favorable Inspiration (ibid., no. L6); it is almost identical in composition to Sappho inspired by Cupid, except presented in contemporary dress, with the poetess holding a quill and wearing fashionable costume.