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Love as Folly
Jean-Honoré Fragonardc. 1773/1776
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: Love as Folly
- Creator: Jean Honoré Fragonard
- Date Created: c. 1773/1776
- Physical Dimensions: overall (oval): 56.2 x 47.3 cm (22 1/8 x 18 5/8 in.) framed: 78.7 x 62.2 x 8.3 cm (31 x 24 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly (Dennoor sale, Le Brun, Paris, 5-7 April 1797, no. 73). Rothschild collections, probably Paris and London. Andrew W. Mellon [1855-1937], Pittsburgh and Washington, by 1934;[1] by inheritance to his daughter, Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA. [1] Given the numerous versions of this painting and its pendant, _Love the Sentinel_ (NGA 1970.17.112), it is difficult to establish their early provenances. Although Georges Wildenstein, _The Paintings of Fragonard_, New York, 1960: 271, listed the other NGA pair (NGA 1947.2.1 and NGA 1947.2.2) as appearing in the Véri sale in 1785, Roger Portalis, _Honoré Fragonard: Sa vie et son oeuvre_, 2 vols., Paris, 1889: 2:270, associated this painting and its pendant with that sale. The identity of the Rothschild collection that included the pair is also uncertain. Portalis 1889, 2:270 cites Alphonse de Rothschild (probably Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild, 1827-1905) at the Château de Boulogne-sur-Seine; Pierre de Nolhac, _Jean-Honoré Fragonard: 1732-1806_, Paris, 1906: 156, cites Alphonse without a location; and Wildenstein 1960, 271, cites Alphonse at the Château de Boulogne and Arthur de Rothschild in London. The Rothschild Archive in London kindly searched Alphonse's records for the paintings without success and also noted that the Château de Boulogne was the residence not of Alphonse, but of his brother, Edmond James de Rothschild (1845-1934) (Melanie Aspey, e-mail message, 3 March 2006, and Barbra Ruperto, e-mail message, 21 August 2007, both to Anne Halpern, NGA curatorial files). Pauline Marcilhacy, whose expertise is the Rothschild collections in France, kindly checked the available records for the Château de Boulogne but did not find the National Gallery's paintings (e-mail message to Anne Halpern, 5 September 2007, NGA curatorial files). The "C" number that appears on a label on the reverse of the painting likely indicates that the painting was in the hands of M. Knoedler & Co., whose stock numbers for objects on consignment took this form. Mellon could well have purchased the painting from this dealer (by 1934 when he lent it to a San Francisco exhibition), or at some point during his ownership he may have attempted unsuccessfully to sell it through Knoedler's.
- Medium: oil on canvas
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