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A woman runs across a hilltop, looking back at a man attempting to pursue her

Dressed in a billowing white satin dress and small matching pumps, a woman at center looks back behind her, running along a path, past flowers and tall grasses on a hilltop under bright blue skies.. She has pale skin, rosy cheeks, flowers in her hair and we see her mid-step, one foot out behind her and both arms outstretched. At lower left, behind her on the path and lower on the hill, we glimpse the head and shoulders of a man emerging from behind the foliage. He has pale skin and white hair tied in a braid that flies out behind him.

Gallery Text

After studying with both François Boucher and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Fragonard won the Prix de Rome in 1752. When he returned to Paris in 1761, he was received into the French Academy as agréé (not a full member). Instead of pursuing a career as a painter of historical and religious works, he chose to focus on genre paintings. By the late 1760s, he had a large number of aristocratic clients who delighted in exquisitely crafted depictions of amorous themes. This portrayal of an elegantly dressed woman running from the gentleman in the distance, under beautiful skies in a verdant setting, exemplifies the works he painted for them.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1975.72
People
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French (Grasse 1732 - 1806 Paris)
Previously attributed to Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French (Grasse 1732 - 1806 Paris)
Title
The Pre-Arranged Flight
Other Titles
Original Language Title: La fuite à dessein
Alternate Title: The Feigned Flight
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1772-1773
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227892

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2220, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the Eighteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
59.1 x 50.2 cm (23 1/4 x 19 3/4 in.)
framed: 82.2 x 73 x 10.3 cm (32 3/8 x 28 3/4 x 4 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Possibly Turpin de Crissé collection, 18th century. Collection L'Homme, sold [Paris, March 24-25, 1834, lot 89 as "Le pied leger"]; to de Mentque. Prousteau de Montlouis, sold [through Hotel des Ventes, Paris, May 5-6, 1851, lot 63]; to M. Camille Marcille, sold [through Hotel Drouot, Paris, March 8-9, 1876, lot 27]; to Plach for Baron Albert de Rothschild, Vienna, by descent; to Baron Louis de Rothschild, Vienna. Comte V. Karolyi. Comte Sigismond de Berchtold. [Wildenstein, New York]; to Phyllis H. and Charles Dunlap, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1975.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Phyllis H. Dunlap
Accession Year
1975
Object Number
1975.72
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Catalogue de Tableaux des Écoles Italienne, Hollandaise, Flamande et Française...provenant du cabinet de M. L'Homme, auct. cat. (Paris, March 24-15, 1834), p. 20, lot 89
  • Catalogue d'une Collection de Tableaux..., auct. cat. (Paris, May 5-6, 1851)
  • Catalogue de Tableaux et Dessins formant la Collection de fru M. Camille Marcille, auct. cat. (Paris, March 8-9, 1876), p. 12, lot 27
  • Georges Duplessis, La collection de Camille Marcille, Gazette des Beaux-Arts (March 1876)
  • Gustave Bourcard, Dessins, Gouaches, Estampes, et Tabelaux du XVIIIe siècle, Damascène Morgand (Paris, 1893), p. 204
  • Virgile Josz, Fragonard: moeurs du XVIIIe siècle, Société du Mercure de France (Paris, 1901), p. 140
  • Pierre de Nolhac, J.-H. Fragonard, 1732-1806, Goupil & Cie and Manzi, Joyant & Cie (Paris, 1906), p. 122
  • Georges Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, Phaidon (London, 1960), p. 269, cat. no. 308, repr. as plate 59
  • Fragonard, exh. cat., Fondation Wildenstein and National Museum of Western Art (Paris, 1980), cat. no. 48, repr.
  • Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et Oeuvre, Catalogue complet des peintures, Office du Livre (Switzerland, 1987), p. 310, no. 263, repr.
  • Pierre Rosenberg, Fragonard, exh. cat., Ministère de la Culture, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux (Paris, 1988), p. 426, repr. as fig. 23
  • Pierre Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Flammarion (Paris, 1989), no. 230, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)
  • J. Patrice Marandel, Three Masters of French Rococo: Boucher, Fragonard, Lancret, exh. cat., TG Concepts Inc. (Tokyo, 1990), pp. 82, 172, cat. no. 43, repr. p. 82
  • Eunice Williams, "Gens, Honorez Fragonard!": Works from the Collections of Harvard University and Harvard Friends, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1993), checklist no.12
  • 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), checklist no. 2, p. 11

Exhibition History

  • “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
  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu