Print this Entry

La Comédienne (copy 1)

Entered December 2017; revised July 2018

 

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

74 x 60 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

La Comédienne italienne

 

PROVENANCE

London, Sotheby’s, “The Property of a Gentleman,” December 8, 1965, lot 69: “JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD . . .  PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN / A young woman with blonde hair, half length, turned to the right, wearing a low-cut blue dress with slashed sleeves, a yellow stole tied with a red ribbon and a blue feathered hat. Oval  29¼ in. by 23¾ in. (See illustration).” Sold to Mackintosh for £2,800 ($7,840).

 

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mathey, “La Comédienne” (1967), 91.

Macchia and Montagni, L’opera completa di Watteau (1968), under cat. 3^o-C.

 

REMARKS

When this painting came up for sale in 1965, it was attributed to Fragonard, the same attribution as the picture now in the Fogg Museum (our copy 2). Unlike Watteau's rendering, here the figure is reduced to bust length, and her arm and hands omitted.

 

 

La Comédienne (copy 2)

Entered December 2017; revised July 2018

 

Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Fogg Museum, inv. 1943.1354

Oil on canvas

60 x 48 cm

 

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Portrait of a Woman

 

PROVENANCE

New York, art market, c. 1895; bought by Grenville L. Winthrop.

New York, collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop (1864-1943; lawyer). His gift to the Harvard Art Museum in 1943.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wolohojian, A Private Passion (2003), 12.

 

REMARKS

When Winthrop bought this picture in 1895, it was attributed to Fragonard. It was still classified under that artist’s name when it entered the Fogg Museum in 1943. After Mathey published Watteau's original painting, the Fogg pictures was reclassified as a copy after Watteau. Like the other copy, it is reduced to just bust length, and the worman's arm and hands are omitted. It is also smaller than the other two versions.

 

For La Comediénne, CLICK HERE

Print this Entry