Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD (Grasse, 1732 - Paris, 1806) - Lot 59

Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD (Grasse, 1732 - Paris, 1806) Venus binding the wings of Love Canvas 78.1 x 132.1 cm Provenance l - Collection of Monsieur and Madame Ephrussi; - France, private collection; - France, Paris, Collection André Weil, 1969; - Los Angeles, Norton Simon Foundation, 1969; - London, Sotheby's sale April 16, 1980: lot n°97; - London, Sotheby's sale November 17, 1982: lot no. 74. Bibliography l - WILDENSTEIN Georges, The painting of Fragonard, phaidon,1960, n°51 bis, p.204, FIG.35bis ( with a counterpart, La musique); - MANDEL Gabriele, L'opera completa di Fragonard, Milano, Rizzoli, 1972: n°58; - D. Sutton, Fragonard exhibition catalog, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum; 1980, no. 9. - P. ROSENBERG, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, 1989, no. 233; - CUZIN Jean-Pierre, Fragonard, Vie et oeuvre, Office du Livre, Fribourg, 1987, catalog no. 206, p.298: Vénus liant les ailes de l'amour, circa 1770 or 1775. In a vaporous, luminous sky, a nude young woman, draped in white and seated on a cloud, embraces a winged child identifiable with Love (Cupid). The graceful treatment of the flesh, the silky draperies and the abandoned accessories (quiver, arrows, ball) accentuate the allegorical character of the scene. This painting is in the gallant, sensual vein of Fragonard, heir to the art of Boucher, but with a more vibrant energy and more nervous modeling. The subject, the tender, light-hearted intimacy between Venus and her son, evokes the mythological cycles the artist painted in the 1770s, for an aristocratic clientele fond of light mythological scenes with erotic overtones. The light clouds, pearly flesh and refined fabrics are typical of the master of Grasse, and recall his famous compositions in the Louvre or at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. A preparatory study (canvas, 20 x 30cm, former Hugh Rose collection, London) is reproduced in L'opéra completa di Fragonard, by D. WILDENSTEIN, n°59, p.88. Expert l Cabinet Turquin Lot sold by appointment and exclusively visible at Cabinet Turquin by appointment from September 8 to October 14 at 69 rue Saint-Anne 75002 Paris, 01.47.03.48 78