Jean-Honor Fragonard (1732-1806)

Le Petit Parc: The Gardens of the Villa d'Este

Details

Jean-Honor Fragonard (1732-1806)
Fragonard, J.-H.
Le Petit Parc: The Gardens of the Villa d'Este
with inscription 'Jean. H. fragonard.' on the mount
red chalk counterproof retouched in pen and brown ink, gray-brown wash
13.5/8 x 17 in. (346 x 440 mm.)

Provenance

The mounter's mark F. Renaud (L. 1042).
Baron de Vaux.
Mrs. William H. Crocker, New York.

Literature

A. Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessin de Fragonard, Paris, 1970, IV, no. 2148, fig. 578.

Exhibited

Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Master Drawings, 1935, no. 85, illustrated.
Oakland, Mills Art Gallery, Old Master Drawings, 1937, no. 21, illustrated.
Portland, Portland Museum of Art, Old Master Drawings, 1938, no. 21, illustrated.

Lot Essay

This is the retouched counterproof of a drawing formerly in the Doucet Collection, now in a private collection, known as Le Petit Parc, A. Ananoff, op. cit., I, no. 351. Another red chalk version is known now in a private collection, New York. The composition, etched by the artist, is one of Fragonard's rarest prints in the artist's limited graphic oeuvre. A bodycolor version of the composition rediscovered by Eunice Williams is now in the E.V. Thaw collection, New York, exhibited thee and at the Royal Academy of Art, London, Drawings from the Thaw Collection at The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1996, no. 26.