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Lot Essay
This picture forms part of a group of genre scenes executed by the artist during his first stay in Rome in 1756-1761. Cuzin (loc. cit.) dates the picture to circa 1760, describing it as 'd'une grande importance, une des plus belles toiles du premier sjour romain'. Other pictures in this group are, for example, Les Lavandires in the City Art Museum, St. Louis, La Famille italienne at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Les Apprts du Repas, in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow; the present picture is one of the smallest in the group.
Described in the 1782 Paris sale catalogue as 'une esquisse d'un effet le plus piquant et touche avec esprit', the picture is not apparently preparatory for any other composition, but nevertheless has a sketch-like spontaneity and freedom of execution. As Rosenberg (op. cit., 1989, introduction, III) has suggested, in pictures such as the present one, Fragonard blurred the traditional distinction between sketch and finished composition: 'cette distinction, Fragonard l'abolissait. Il levait l'esquisse au rang de tableau achev, lui donnait ses lettres de noblesse'.
Described in the 1782 Paris sale catalogue as 'une esquisse d'un effet le plus piquant et touche avec esprit', the picture is not apparently preparatory for any other composition, but nevertheless has a sketch-like spontaneity and freedom of execution. As Rosenberg (op. cit., 1989, introduction, III) has suggested, in pictures such as the present one, Fragonard blurred the traditional distinction between sketch and finished composition: 'cette distinction, Fragonard l'abolissait. Il levait l'esquisse au rang de tableau achev, lui donnait ses lettres de noblesse'.