Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)

Número de Inventário:00151 TC
Tipo de Espécime:Transparência a cores (TC)
Instituição / Proprietário:Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
Número de Inventário do Objecto:1548 Pint
Categoria:Pintura
Denominação / Título:Duas Irmãs
Datação:Século XVIII [1760-1770]
Dimensões:A 31,7 x L 24 cm
Autoria / Produção:Jean Honoré Fragonard / Jean Honoré Fragonard / Francesa
Grupo Cultural:
Descritores:
Informação Técnica:Óleo sobre madeira de sucupira
Fotógrafo:José Pessoa, 1999
Copyright:© IMC / MC



Artist
Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)

Title
The Two Sisters

Medium
Oil on canvas

Dimensions
28 1/4 x 22 in. (71.8 x 55.9 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Julia A. Berwind, 1953

Accession Number
53.61.5

Gallery Label
The earliest description we have of the picture is from a 1785 sale catalog, where it is described as "two girls occupied with games suitable to their ages." The younger child is seated upon a hobby horse; the older pushes the horse, while holding its peach-colored lead rein. The painting, which has been cut down, dates to about 1770.

Notes
A preliminary oil sketch for this painting is in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. The finished painting was copied in a pastel by the Abbé de Saint-Non (dated 1770; MMA 1977.383) and engraved by Gérard Vidal (1742–1801, MMA 53.674). All of these related works show the composition of the painting before it was cut down by an unknown owner at some point between 1906 and 1916; the original dimensions were 39 x 31 7/8 in., according to the Veri sale catalogue of 1785. In this catalogue the painting is described as representing two sisters; the engraving is inscribed "Les Jeunes Soeurs." In 1916, however, Gimpel & Wildenstein announced to the Parisian press that the painting showed Fragonard's daughter Rosalie (born 1769) and his young sister-in-law Marguerite Gérard (born 1761). If the date on the Saint-Non pastel is correctly read as 1770, there is no question that this identification is wrong. Even if, however, the date is read as 1779 (there is a dot below the zero that could be taken for the tail of a nine), the apparent age difference between the two girls is not nearly as great as that between Rosalie and Marguerite. In addition, the older girl bears no resemblance to the earliest known portrait of Marguerite, a sketch in the Musées de Besançon dating from about 1778–81 (ill. D. Wakefield, Fragonard, 1976, fig. 45.).

Provenance
Louis Gabriel de Véri Raionard, marquis de Véri, Paris (until d. 1785;
his estate sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, December 12, 1785, no. 35, as "deux jeunes filles. . . ;
la plus petite est montée sur un cheval de carton porté par des roulettes," 37 x 30 pouces [39 1/2 x 32 in.], for 350 livres to Saint-Marc);
Jean Paul André Des Rasins, marquis de Saint-Marc, Paris (from 1785);
private collection, near Stockholm, Sweden (sold to Zarine);
A. Zarine, Consul General of Russia, Paris (until 1916;
sold to Gimpel & Wildenstein);
[Gimpel & Wildenstein, Paris, 1916–18; sold for $194,000 to Berwind];
Edward J. Berwind, New York (1918–d. 1936);
his sister, Julia A. Berwind, New York (1936–53)

Exhibition History
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Fragonard," May 24–June 29, 1980, no. 77.

Tokyo. National Museum of Western Art. "Fragonard," March 18–May 11, 1980, no. 77.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Fragonard," September 24, 1987–January 4, 1988, no. 157.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fragonard," February 2–May 8, 1988, no. 157.

References
Catalogue des tableaux des trois écoles . . . du cabinet de feu M le Marquis de Véri. Hôtel de Bullion, Paris. December 12, 1785, p. 24, no. 35.

Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2, 3rd ed. Paris, 1882, p. 374.

Baron Roger Portalis. Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1889, pp. 63, 275, 329, no. 116 (Vidal's engraving, "Les Jeunes Soeurs"), ill. opp. p. 114 (1st state of engraving).

Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. definitive ed. Paris, 1906, vol. 3, p. 288.

Pierre de Nolhac. J.-H. Fragonard, 1732–1806. Paris, 1906, p. 131.

Georges Grappe. H. Fragonard: Peintre de l'amour au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1913, vol. 1, p. 120; vol. 2, p. 65, no. 31 (the engraving).

A. Damécourt. "Nos échos: Un Fragonard." Le cousin pons 1 (December 15, 1916), pp. 141–42, ill. (engraving).

"Dans les galeries d'art." New York Herald [Paris] (December 2, 1916), p. 4, col. 6.

"Discovered Fragonard." American Art News 15 (January 6, 1917), p. 5, ill. (engraving).

A. Damécourt. "A propos d'un Fragonard." Le cousin pons 2 (March 1, 1917), p. 182, ill. (engraving).

Briggs Davenport. "A Fragonard Rediscovered." American Art News 15 (March 17, 1917), p. 5.

L[ouis]. V[auxcelles]. "Art ancien: Un chef-d'oeuvre de Fragonard retrouvé." Le carnet des artistes no. 2 (February 15, 1917), pp. 9–11, ill. (showing canvas cut to its present size).

Louis Réau. L'art français aux États-Unis. Paris, 1926, p. 142.

Louis Réau. Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956, pp. 167, 245–46.

Georges Wildenstein. "L'Abbé de Saint-Non, artiste et mécène." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 54 (November 1959), p. 228.

Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of Fragonard, Complete Edition. London, 1960, p. 305, no. 476, pl. 106.

Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Four French Paintings from the Berwind Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (May 1962), pp. 265, 268, fig. 6.

René Gimpel. Diary of an Art Dealer. English ed. New York, 1966, p. 33.

Gabriele Mandel in L'opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972, p. 108, no. 501, ill.

Eunice Williams. Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1978, p. 136.

Mary Ann Wurth Harris. "The Abbé de Saint-Non and His Pastel Copy of a Painting by Fragonard." Apollo 110 (July 1979), pp. 57, 60–61, fig. 2.

Denys Sutton. Fragonard. Exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art. Tokyo, 1980, unpaginated, no. 77, ill. (color).

Jean-Pierre Cuzin. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre, catalogue complet des peintures. Fribourg, Switzerland, 1987, pp. 127–28, 296–97, no. 195, ill. (in text and catalogue).

Pierre Rosenberg. Fragonard. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 332–34, no. 157, ill. in color.