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Lot Essay
This charming depiction of two pretty young girls playfully teaching a lapdog to sit at attention is a rapidly executed sketch, perhaps intended as a preliminary idea for a larger, more finished painting that has been lost or that Fragonard never ultimately undertook. Painted in thinly diluted oils on card, which absorbed much of the pigment, creating the deeply shadowed dark-haired girl at center, an effect that serves to relegate her largely into the background. He used thicker glazes of light-colored, less diluted pigments to highlight the head, face, upper body and costume of the principal, blonde-haired girl – whose feline physiognomy is frequently seen in Fragonard’s depictions of young women – adding deft strokes of thick white pigment to enliven her form and the fur of the dog, and sharp black strokes to define the folds of her dress and the head and silhouette of the spaniel. Combined with Fragonard’s light, bright palette of pinks and yellows set against an indeterminate ochre background, this variety of touch in the paint handling imbues the sketch with a lively, vivacious effect.
Throughout the 1770s – and notably before the artist’s departure for Rome in 1774 – Fragonard frequently took up the subject of young women playing with their pets, most often kittens and puppies. Several of these paintings are frankly erotic. A Young Girl Holding Two Puppies (c. 1770; private collection; sold, Christie’s New York, 15 April 2008, lot 67) and Young Girl Embracing a White Cat (c. 1770; Museum Langmatt, Berlin) both depict long brunette-haired women embracing the affectionate pets to their bare breasts. In La Gimblette (c. 1770-4; Alte Pinakothek, Munich), a young woman reclines on her back in an extravagantly unmade bed holding a puppy between her bare legs. In Two Girls on a Bed Playing with Their Dogs (c. 1772-5; The Resnick Collection, Beverly Hills), the comely young women are barely clad in white chemises that entirely fail to cover their abundant nudity. Other renderings of the theme, such as the present painting, are more innocent and playful in intent, and include the elegant Young Girl Holding a Cat and a Dog Who Fight One Another (c. 1775-8; formerly Batsheva de Rothschild collection, Tel Aviv; sold, Christie’s, London, 13 December 2000, lots 64 and 65), and ‘Education Does It All’ (c. 1780; Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo), in which a girl dresses her two spaniels in costume and teaches them to sit up and perform tricks.
The present painting was rediscovered in 1988 and its early provenance has yet to be established. It was first published by Pierre Rosenberg, doyen of Fragonard studies, in his catalogue raisonné of 1989, where he proposed that it was executed immediately before Fragonard’s second trip to Italy; that is, circa 1773-4 (ibid.).
Throughout the 1770s – and notably before the artist’s departure for Rome in 1774 – Fragonard frequently took up the subject of young women playing with their pets, most often kittens and puppies. Several of these paintings are frankly erotic. A Young Girl Holding Two Puppies (c. 1770; private collection; sold, Christie’s New York, 15 April 2008, lot 67) and Young Girl Embracing a White Cat (c. 1770; Museum Langmatt, Berlin) both depict long brunette-haired women embracing the affectionate pets to their bare breasts. In La Gimblette (c. 1770-4; Alte Pinakothek, Munich), a young woman reclines on her back in an extravagantly unmade bed holding a puppy between her bare legs. In Two Girls on a Bed Playing with Their Dogs (c. 1772-5; The Resnick Collection, Beverly Hills), the comely young women are barely clad in white chemises that entirely fail to cover their abundant nudity. Other renderings of the theme, such as the present painting, are more innocent and playful in intent, and include the elegant Young Girl Holding a Cat and a Dog Who Fight One Another (c. 1775-8; formerly Batsheva de Rothschild collection, Tel Aviv; sold, Christie’s, London, 13 December 2000, lots 64 and 65), and ‘Education Does It All’ (c. 1780; Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo), in which a girl dresses her two spaniels in costume and teaches them to sit up and perform tricks.
The present painting was rediscovered in 1988 and its early provenance has yet to be established. It was first published by Pierre Rosenberg, doyen of Fragonard studies, in his catalogue raisonné of 1989, where he proposed that it was executed immediately before Fragonard’s second trip to Italy; that is, circa 1773-4 (ibid.).