1955.186: Reverie

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1955.186

People

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French (Grasse 1732 - 1806 Paris)

Title

Reverie

Other Titles

Former Title: Young Girl Abandoned
Original Language Title: L'Abandonnée

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1790

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/299817

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Brown and gray wash, black chalk, and traces of red chalk heightened with gum arabic(?) on cream antique laid paper prepared with gum arabic, laid down on a decorated mount

Dimensions

33.8 x 24.9 cm (13 5/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
framed: 55.88 x 47.94 x 6.35 cm (22 x 18 7/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• watermark: indecipherable
• inscription: none
• label: verso of frame, bottom right, upside down, printed text: 7107

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Hippolyte Walferdin, Paris; his estate sale, Drouot (Escribe), Paris, 12-16 April 1880, lot 209, sold; to Albert Meyer, Paris; Camille Groult, Paris (by 1889); Wildenstein and Co., New York (by 1921), sold; to Charles E. Dunlap, New York, gift; to Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Charles E. Dunlap, inv. no. 1955.186

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Charles E. Dunlap

Accession Year

1955

Object Number

1955.186

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt, L'art du dix-huitième siècle, A. Quantin (Paris, 1880-1882), vol. 2, p. 336
• Baron Roger Portalis, Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, J. Rothschild (Paris, 1889), vol. 1, pp. iii, 100-101, vol. 2, p. 294
• Georges Wildenstein, Exposition d’œuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, exh. cat., Presses de Frazier-Soye (Paris, 1921), cat. no. 205, p. 57
• Louis Réau, Fragonard: sa vie et son oeuvre, Elsevier (Brussels, 1956), p. 196
• Alexandre Ananoff, L'Œuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Libraire F. de Nobele (Paris, 1961-1970), vol. 2, cat. no. A.723, p. 68, vol. 3, n.p.
• Harry D.M. Grier, ed., The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1968-2003), vol. 2, pp. 112, 120-n.33
• Edgar Munhall, “Fragonard’s Studies for ‘The Progress of Love’", Apollo Publications Inc. (London, 1971), May, pp. 400-407, pp. 406-407
• Eunice Williams, Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, 1978), cat. no. 61, pp. 150-51
• Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), cat. no. 277, p. 237
• Pierre Rosenberg, Fragonard, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, 1987-1988), cat. no. 156, p. 331
• Pierre Rosenberg, Fragonard, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, 1988), cat. 156, repr. on p. 331
• Eunice Williams, "Gens, Honorez Fragonard!": Works from the Collections of Harvard University and Harvard Friends, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1993), cat. no. 28, n.p.
• James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 224-25
• Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
• Andrei Molotiu, “’The Progress of Love’ and the Magic Garden: Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Decorative Ensemble for the Villa Maubert in Grasse", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Gazette des Beaux-Arts (Paris, 2001), ser. 6, vol. 137, no. 1585, pp. 91-114, p. 112-n.25
• Alvin L. Clark, Jr., "To Delight the Eye": French Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Charles E. Dunlap, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 2005), cat. no. 9, pp. 8, 12
• Matthias Waschek, Marjorie B. Cohn, Judith Mann, and Stephan Wolohojian, Ideal [Dis-] Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer, exh. cat., Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis, 2008), cat. no. 37, pp. 34, 37
• Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey, "Review: Fragonard's Progress of Love at the Frick Collection", The Burlington Magazine, The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. (London, 2013), vol. 155, May, pp. 335-36, p. 336-n.7
• Satish Padiyar, Fragonard: Painting Out of Time, Reaktion Books (London, 2020), pp. 190, 192, 195, repr. p. 190 as fig. 109
• Alvin L. Clark, Jr. and Edouard Kopp, French Drawings from the Age of Claude, Poussin, Watteau, and Fragonard: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2022), cat. no. 92, repr.; detail repr. p. 247, p. 17

Exhibition History

• Exposition d’œuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 06/07/1921 - 07/10/1921
• Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 11/19/1978 - 01/21/1979; Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/16/1979 - 04/01/1979; The Frick Collection, New York, 04/20/1979 - 06/03/1979
• Fragonard, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 09/24/1987 - 01/04/1988; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 02/02/1988 - 05/08/1988
• “Gens, Honorez Fragonard!”: Works from the Collection of Harvard University and Harvard Friends, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/15/1993 - 07/11/1993
• "To Delight the Eye": French Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Charles E. Dunlap, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/17/2005 - 03/12/2006
• Ideal [Dis-] Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 10/24/2008 - 10/03/2009
• 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/19/2017 - 09/13/2017

Verification Level