JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD* (1732-1806)

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Details

JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD* (1732-1806)

Portrait of a Lady, said to be Marie-Thérèse-Theodore Rombocoli-Riggieri (also known as Marie-Catherine Colombe), as Venus holding an Apple

oil on canvas--oval
22½ x 18½in. (57.1 x 47cm.)

Provenance

Anon. sale, Jan. 18, 1877, lot 12
M. Doisteau, Paris
with Gimpel & Wildenstein, from whom bought by
William Salomon; his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, April 4-7, 1923, lot 388, wrongly mentioned as coming from Saint Brice ($41,000 to Duveen)
William R. Hearst
Miss Marion Davies, by whom donated in 1956 to
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; sale, Sotheby's, Los Angeles, June 21, 1982, lot 37, where purchased by the present owner

Literature

J. Stern, Mesdemoiselles Colombe de la Comédie-italiennes avec trois portraits 1751-1841, 1923, p. 58, note 2
Palatial New York Mansion of the late William Salomon and its Rare and Costly Artistic Contents are to be Sold at Auction, Art News, March 10, 1923, illustrated
Salomon Sale, totalling $1,292,847, Third Largest in America, Art News, April 14, 1923, p. 4, illustrated
L. Réau, Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, 1956, p. 177
R.F. Brown, Fragonard's Mademoiselle Colombe as Venus, Los Angeles County Museum Bulletin, 1957, IX, pp. 3-5, illustrated p. 3 and on cover
J. Cailleux, Fragonard as painter of the Colombe Sisters, L'Art de Dix-huitième siècle, supplement to The Burlington Magazine, Sept. 1960, p. V
G. Wildenstein, Les peintures de Fragonard, 1960, no. 416
J. Wilhelm, Fragonard, unpublished manuscript, 1960, p. 162
McCall's Magazine, April 1965, illustrated
G. Mandel, L'opera completa di Fragonard, 1972, no. 442
J.-P. Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Vie et Oeuvre, 1987, p. 303, no. 223, illustrated
P. Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, 1989, p. 97, no. 235, illustrated, as location unknown

Exhibited

New York, Gimpel & Wildenstein, An Exhibition of paintings and Drawings by Fragonard, 1914, no. 9

Lot Essay

The present lot is said to represent Marie-Catherine Colombe, the eldest of three sisters from the Comédie Italienne, painted c. 1770 (Rosenberg, loc. cit.).

Marie-Thérèse-Théodore Rombocoli-Riggieri was born in Venice in 1754. She was taken to Paris in 1766 by her father and entered the Comédie Italienne where she quickly gained a reputation as a flamboyant performer. She took the stage name Mlle. Colombe, the French word for 'dove' and, hence the identification of her in the present painting. The Comte de Masserone (better know as Lord Mazarin) fell in love with her and is said to have bought her from her parents for the sum of 100 louis d'or. She retired from the theater in 1788 and settled at Versailles where she died in 1837