Houston buys a painting by Marguerite Gérard and Fragonard

All the versions of this article: English , français

13/3/22 - Acquisition - Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts - The story of this painting (ill. 1), acquired by The Museum of Fine Arts from the galerie Éric Coatalem, is surprising and fascinating. We can summarise it here from the note written by Carole Blumenfeld, a specialist in Marguerite Gérard, kindly sent to us by the gallery.


1. Marguerite Gérard and Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Erudite Young Mother, late 1790s
Oil on canvas - 55 x 45 cm
Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts
Photo: Éric Coatalem Gallery
See the image in its page

The work has been known since an auction in 2000, and the participation of both painters corresponded to what Carole Blumenfeld calls "collaboration by pieces" paintings where the parts executed by each artist can be easily recognized. Thus the maid lifting a child on the left and the rembranesque figure of the old woman behind the screen can be attributed to Fragonard, while the three figures on the right and the still life in the foreground are by Marguerite Gérard, whose style is more meticulous, closer to the subject matter of the Dutch of the Leiden school.

Fragonard and Gérard played a game of confusing the two: some of the latter’s paintings were signed by the former, while works by Marguerite Gérard were engraved under Fragonard’s name, and some of those painted by both hands went under Gérard’s name alone. But the case of this painting is even more complex.


2. Henri Gérard (1755-1835 ?), after Marguerite Gérard (1731-1837)
L’Art d’aimer or Traduction de l’Art d’aimer d’Ovide
Print
See the image in its page

Indeed, another work by Marguerite Gérard, L’Art d’aimer or La Traduction de l’Art d’aimer d’Ovide was known from the engraving (ill. 2) but had never appeared again. And for good reason: an examination of the painting acquired by Houston showed that it had been taken over a few years later by Fragonard, who painted the whole of the left-hand side, i.e. the figures we described above, and by Marguerite Gérard herself. Thus the figure on the left (the engraving is in reverse) reading to the languid young woman from a leaflet of "La Traduction de l’Art d’aimer d’Ovide" was covered, as were the convex mirror on the back wall (reflecting a window) and the two dogs (replaced by a cat lying on a seat in the middle of the composition), while the screen, the cradle and the copper samovar in the foreground were added by Marguerite Gérard.
A copy of the first painting, in the correct direction (reverse of the engraving), has been found by Carole Blumenfeld, which means that the first composition existed for a few years before being taken up again thus, at the end of the 1790s, by the two painters.


3. Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)
Woman Holding a Child in her Arms
Oil on canvas - 17,8 x 13,4 cm
Wildenstein & Co
Photo: Wildenstein & Co
See the image in its page
4. Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)
The Cherished Bird, c. 1785
Oil on canvas
Grasse, Jean-Honoré Fragonard Museum
Unidentified photographer
See the image in its page

Note that the young woman carrying the child recalls a work by Fragonard that we reproduced yesterday on the site: one of the four small paintings (ill. 3) presented by Wildenstein at the Tefaf (see article), thus a painting kept in the Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Costa collection) in Grasse, L’Oiseau chéri (ill. 4).

Your comments

In order to be able to discuss articles and read the contributions of other subscribers, you must subscribe to The Art Tribune. The advantages and conditions of this subscription, which will also allow you to support The Art Tribune, are described on the subscription page.

If you are already a subscriber, sign in.