JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD
Grasse 1732–1806 Paris
Capriccio: Excavation of Roman Ruins
Marked, lower right, with the blind stamp of the Parisian mount maker, François Renaud (Lugt 1042)
Brush and brown and grey washes, with touches of blue, red, and olive-green watercolor, over black chalk
10 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches
261 x 313 mm
Provenance
Etienne Arago (1802-1892), Paris, by 1884
Mme. Charras, Paris (her sale: Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 2 April 1917, lot 53, illustrated)
Maurice Fenaille (1855–1937), Paris, by descent
Private collection, France (sale: Paris, Couturier & Nicolay, 30 March 1979, lot 5)
Private collection (sale: London, Sotheby’s, 2 July 1997, lot 69, illustrated)
Private collection (sale: New York, Sotheby's, 26 January 2000, lot 95, illustrated), where purchased by
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cresci, Stowe, Vermont
W. M. Brady & Co., New York, 2011
Private collection, New York
Exhibitions
Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Les Dessins de l’école moderne, 1884, cat. no. 268 (lent by E. Arago)
Paris, Pavillon de Marsan, Fragonard, 1921, cat. no. 113 (lent by M. Fenaille)
Paris, Jacques Seligmann & Fils, Exposition de Dessins de Fragonard, 1931, cat. no. 78 (lent by M. Fenaille)
Paris, Pavillon de Marsan, Les artistes français en Italie, 1934, cat. no. 463
(lent by M. Fenaille)
Copenhagen, Charlottenborg Palace, L’Art Français au XVIIIe Siècle, 1935, cat. no. 367 (lent by M. Fenaille)
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fragonard, Drawings Triumphant, Works from New York Collections, 6 October 2016 - 8 January 2017, cat. no. 6, illustrated (entry by E. Williams)
Bibliography
L. Réau, Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, Brussels 1956, p. 227
A. Ananoff, L’Oeuvre dessiné de Fragonard, vol. I, Paris 1961, p. 158, no. 363,
fig. 127
Drawn circa 1760–62
PRIVATE COLLECTION, PARIS