Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Paris 1686-1755 Beauvais)

'L'Homme et la puce' (The man and the flea)

Details

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Paris 1686-1755 Beauvais)
'L'Homme et la puce' (The man and the flea)
signed and dated in brown ink 'JB. Oudry / 1732', numbered '55' in graphite (verso)
pen and brown ink, gray wash, heightened with white, on blue paper
12 3/8 x 10 ¼ in. (31 x 26 cm.)

Provenance

Sold by the artist to Jean-Louis Regnard de Montenault, circa 1751, part of two albums.
with Frères de Bure, Paris, by 1828 and then to J.J. de Bure, Paris; his sale, Paris, 1-18 December 1853, part of lot 344 (to Thibaudeau).
Comte Adolphe-Narcisse Thibaudeau, Paris, possibly given to Mrs Eugénie Doche, and then sold to Auguste Fontaine, where acquired by Félix Solar, Bordeaux; his sale, Charles Pillet, Paris, 19 November-8 December 1860, part of lot 627 (to Cléder for Baron Taylor).
Baron Isidore-Justin-Séverin Taylor (1789-1879), Paris.
with Morgand and Fatout, Paris, circa 1876, where acquired by Emile Péreire.
Louis Olry-Roederer, Reims, 1877, then by descent to his nephew, Léon Olry-Roederer, Reims and Paris.
Thomas Agnews and Sons, London, where acquired by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, Philadelphia, 1922, then sold to Raphael Esmérian, New York, 1946; his sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 6 June 1973, part of lot 46.
Probably with Claude Virch, New York and Bermuda, as part of one album.
Bill Blass (1922-2002), New York; his sale, Christie's, New York, 12 January 1988, lot 106, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

J. Locquin, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre de Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Peintre du Roi (1686-1755), Paris, 1912, no. 1095.
H. Opperman, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1972 (published New York and London, 1977), II, no. D. 382.

Engraved

by Benoît-Louis Prévost for Jean de La Fontaine, Fables choisies, III, Paris, 1756, pl. of fable V, between pp. 56 and 57 (Locquin, ‘L’œuvré grave du peintre Jean-Baptiste Oudry’, Annuaire de la gravure française, 1912, no. 1095).

Lot Essay

This drawing is part of a group of 276 sheets, all in the same technique and on blue paper, most signed and dated, framed by a faux blue mount with black framing lines. Produced between 1729 and 1734 by the animal painter Oudry, they illustrate the 245 fables of Jean de La Fontaine (see Opperman, op. cit., II, pp. 682-685; and idem, J.-B. Oudry, 1685-1755, exhib. cat., Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 1982-1983, pp. 157-159). The two albums which contained the drawings were acquired by Jean-Louis Regnard de Montenault, who had Charles-Nicolas Cochin adapt them to be engraved for an illustrated edition published in four volumes in Paris between 1755 and 1759, under the title Fables choisies. The drawing offered here illustrates fable 5 of book 8: ‘A flea that bit the shoulder of a fool/ The blanket gained, and hid among the wool’ (translation by Robert Thomson).

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