Lot Essay
The scene was obviously observed by the artist who could have visited a foundry when he accompanied the abbé de Saint-Non back from Italy in September-October 1761. The scale of the composition and the handling of the chalk are consistent with a date in the first half of the 1760s. However several analogies to Fragonard's large views of the Villa d'Este, drawn in 1760, might suggest the earlier date; the treatment of leaves, stones and walls can be compared to the Stables of Maecenas, A. Ananoff, L'Oeuvre dessiné de Fragonard, Paris, 1961, III, no. 1423. The elongated figures with rounded heads can be found in several further drawings datable circa 1760-61 such as La Grande Cascade at Tivoli and A Group of Cipresses at the Villa d'Este, P. Rosenberg, Fragonard, exhib. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, 1987, nos. 24-5, illustrated. Using the reserves of white paper as highlights is typical of Fragonard.
The subject of the composition is unusual for Fragonard but accurate in its depiction of the interior of a foundry operation in the mid-18th century. Plates illustrating Diderot's Encyclopédie show the same details of tinning, including ovens, forge and giant shears for cutting sheets of metal, operated with leverage, as in the present drawing. The cylinder on the right of the drawing corresponds to the mechanism to operate the bellows for the oven in the rear.
Two drawings by Fragonard's friend Hubert Robert reveals a common interest in industrial scenes, but they also serve to demonstrate the difference in style of the two artists: Interior of a Salpetre factory dated 1759 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Valenciennes (J. P. Cuzin and P. Rosenberg, J.-H. Fragonard and H. Robert a Roma, exhib. cat., Villa Medici, Rome, 1991, no. 25) and The Winepress, from the Art Institute of Chicago, V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, no. 4, illustrated.
We are grateful to Eunice Williams for confirming the attribution and for her help in preparing this entry.
The subject of the composition is unusual for Fragonard but accurate in its depiction of the interior of a foundry operation in the mid-18th century. Plates illustrating Diderot's Encyclopédie show the same details of tinning, including ovens, forge and giant shears for cutting sheets of metal, operated with leverage, as in the present drawing. The cylinder on the right of the drawing corresponds to the mechanism to operate the bellows for the oven in the rear.
Two drawings by Fragonard's friend Hubert Robert reveals a common interest in industrial scenes, but they also serve to demonstrate the difference in style of the two artists: Interior of a Salpetre factory dated 1759 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Valenciennes (J. P. Cuzin and P. Rosenberg, J.-H. Fragonard and H. Robert a Roma, exhib. cat., Villa Medici, Rome, 1991, no. 25) and The Winepress, from the Art Institute of Chicago, V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, no. 4, illustrated.
We are grateful to Eunice Williams for confirming the attribution and for her help in preparing this entry.