Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris)
PROPERTY FROM AN ENGLISH PRIVATE COLLECTION (LOT 83)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris)

La visite au grand-père

Details
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris)
La visite au grand-père
with inscription 'Fragonard' (on the mount, lower left)
black chalk, pen and black ink, grey wash
11¼ x 12 3/8 in. (28.5 x 31.3 cm.)
Provenance
J.-B.-P. Le Brun; Hôtel Serpente, Paris, 23 December 1771, lot 81, 'Une jolie composition bistre par Fragonard, représentant un vieillard assis, caressant quatre petits enfants qui lui sont présentés par la mère' (24 livres to Chariot).
Possibly Pierre-Joseph Pigache; Joullain, Paris, 21 October 1776, lot 440, 'Un dessin la pierre noire, lavé au bistre : il représente un vieillard recevant ses enfants & petits-enfants, par H. Fragonard.' (85 livres).
Baron de Vanbaal; Lebrun, Paris, 9-12 April 1781, lot 141, 'Un dessin au bistre sur papier blanc représentant un vieillard assis dans un fauteuil et prés de la porte de sa maison, entouré de ses enfants et petits-enfants, d'un mouton, d'un chat, d'un chien et autres animaux domestiques. Ce morceau est d'un effet piquant et d'une composition pittoresque. (Sous verre).'
Possibly Marquis de M....; Paris, 26 May 1885, lot 16, 'Le Grand Père. Il est devant sa demeure faisant des caresses à ses petits enfants. Beau dessin. Pendant au Les Bons Parents'.
Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris; and by descent to
Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris, by whom bequeathed in around 1910 to
E.M. Hodgkins; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 16 May 1927, lot 12, illustrated (FF 57,000 to Seligman).
André Seligman.
Literature
A. Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessiné de Fragonard, I, Paris, 1961, no. 42.
J.-P. Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre: Catalogue complet de peinture, Fribourg, 1987, p. 89.
Exhibited
Paris, Pavillon de Marsan, Fragonard, 1921, no. 132.

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Benjamin Peronnet
Benjamin Peronnet

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Lot Essay

Fragonard rarely approached Greuze as closely in his work as he did here. The subject is reminiscent of the crowded, moralizing family scenes by Greuze which enjoyed such a great success at the time. The scene is a pleasant rustic setting: in front of a wooden farmhouse, swathed in ivy, an old man sits in a rather large armchair as he welcomes his six grand-children, presented to him by their proud parents. A few animals - a pig, dog, cat, lamb and hen - enliven the tender scene, treated with great economy and humour.

The somewhat unusual technique of a diluted grey wash over precise outlines in pen and ink, again close to Greuze, can be observed in a few other drawings by Fragonard, for example La visite à la nourrice (Sotheby's, Paris, 19 June 2006, lot 53), which relates to a painting in the National Gallery, Washington (Cuzin, op. cit., p. 91, figs. 118-9) and Le retour (Ananoff, op. cit., no. 43). These drawings, as well as the few paintings that show a similar Greuzian influence - for example, La famille du fermier, Saint Petersburg, Hermitage (Cuzin, op. cit., no. 115) - can be dated around 1765.

We are grateful to Eunice Williams for her assistance in cataloguing this drawing.

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