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Three quarter view of a dark-haired young woman facing right

A young woman with fair skin and rouged cheeks leans forward to the right, and turns her head to look at us. With raised eyebrows and bright red painted lips, she smiles slightly, light coming from the left shining in her brown eyes. She wears a low cut white blouse, and a bright red ribbon tied in her dark wavy hair hangs down to her bare shoulder, as she clutches a wrap made of dark crinkly fabric around herself. The background is a warm mottled gray brown.

Gallery Text

Fragonard was one of the last great exponents of the French rococo style. Painted after the successful reception of his Coresus and Callirhoe at the Salon of 1765, this composition emerged after Fragonard’s transition away from grand mythological paintings toward small-scale portraits and informal genre scenes. Paintings like this one, whose loose brushstrokes accentuate the transience of the figure’s sensuous and propositional pose, catered to the tastes of private patrons and Parisian art collectors.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1975.73
People
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French (Grasse 1732 - 1806 Paris)
Title
Young Woman with Brown Hair
Other Titles
Original Language Title: La Jeune Fille Brune
Former Title: The Dark Girl
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1768-1770
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227908

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2220, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the Eighteenth Century
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
46.7 x 39.1 cm (18 3/8 x 15 3/8 in.)
framed: 67.3 x 58.4 x 19.7 cm (26 1/2 x 23 x 7 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Probably Jean Baptiste Pierre LeBrun, Paris, sold [through his sale, commissaire-expert Al. Paillet, Paris, May 23, 1814, lot 46]. Mme Devisme (née Alexandrine-Prospère Pigalle), sold [through Hotel Drouot, commissaire-priseur Paul Chevallier, March 17, 1888, lot 13]; to Jacques Doucet, Paris, sold [through his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, commissaires-priseurs F. Lair-Dubreuil and Henri Baudoin, June 6, 1912, lot 150], sold; to Hector G. Beéche, esq., Paris, sold [through Christie, Manson & Woods, London, July 2, 1937, lot 65]; to Pearson. Sold [through anonymous sale, March 9, 1945, lot 14]. Charles E. Dunlap, by descent; to Phyllis H. Dunlap, 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
1975.73
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Catalogue d'une collection de tableaux capitaux...provenant du cabinet de feu J. B. P. LeBrun, auct. cat. (Paris, May 23, 1814), Probably lot 46
  • Catalogue de diverses oeuvres de J. B. Pigalle..., Hôtel Drouot (Paris, March 17, 1888), p. 13, lot 39
  • Baron Roger Portalis, Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre, J. Rothschild (Paris, 1889), Vol. I, p. 135; Vol. II, p. 290, repr.
  • Virgile Josz, Fragonard: moeurs du XVIIIe siècle, Société du Mercure de France (Paris, 1901), p. 226
  • Collection Jacques Doucet: Catalogue des sculptures & tableaux du XVIIIe siècle, auct. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris, June 6, 1912), p. 50, lot 150, repr.
  • Georges Wildenstein, Exposition d’œuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, exh. cat., Presses de Frazier-Soye (Paris, 1921), cat. no. 57, p. 28, repr.
  • Catalogue of Important Pictures by Old Masters..., auct. cat., Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd. (London, July 2, 1937), p. 27, lot 65, repr.
  • Liliane Guerry-Brion, Fragonard, Electa Editrice (Milan, 1952), no. 53, repr.
  • Georges Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, Phaidon (London, 1960), p. 306, no. 484, repr. as plate 109
  • Harry D.M. Grier, ed., The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1968-2003)
  • Fragonard [Furagonaru Ten], exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, Japan, 1980), cat. no. 79, repr.
  • Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et Oeuvre, Catalogue complet des peintures, Office du Livre (Switzerland, 1987), pp. 125-127, 302, repr.
  • Pierre Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Flammarion (Paris, 1989), pp. 95-96, no. 223, repr. p. 96
  • 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)
  • Eunice Williams, "Gens, Honorez Fragonard!": Works from the Collections of Harvard University and Harvard Friends, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1993), checklist no.10, repr.
  • 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. 3, p. 11

Exhibition History

  • Exposition d’œuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 06/07/1921 - 07/10/1921
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Fragonard, The National Museum of Western Art, 03/18/1980 - 05/11/1980; Municipal Museum of Kyoto, 05/24/1980 - 06/29/1980
  • “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

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