Print this Entry

X. Conduits par l‘Amour

Entered June 2021 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

Measurements unknown

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Led by Love

Unter Amors Führung

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, collection of baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934; banker).

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Zimmerman, Watteau [German edition] (1912), no. 184.

Adhémar, Watteau (1950), cat. 266.

 

REMARKS

When Zimmerman published the painting it was in the Edmond de Rothschild collection, where it evidently was believed to be by Watteau. Adhémar classified the picture among painters “autour de Watteau: Chantereau, Fragonard, Schall, Wleughels. Lajoue, etc.” but attributed it to “Fragonard (?).” Her attribution to Fragonard did not gain traction.

The figures are only vaguely like those painted by Watteau and his satellites, and the putto and clouds may recall Le Pélerinage à l’isle de Cythère, especially the Berlin version. But the picture suggests a dating later in the eighteenth century—if it is indeed an eighteenth-century work.