1943.889: The Cruel One Laughs at the Tears Which It Causes To Be Shed

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1943.889

People

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, French (Cluny 1758 - 1823 Paris)

Title

The Cruel One Laughs at the Tears Which It Causes To Be Shed

Other Titles

Original Language Title: Le Cruel rit des pleurs qu'il fait verser

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1793

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/296880

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black chalk and black crayon on white antique laid paper

Dimensions

actual: 24.5 x 32.3 cm (9 5/8 x 12 11/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• watermark: Fleur-de-lis atop a plain shield with a bend

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Jean-Baptiste Martial Poulain; his sale, G. J. Constantin, Paris, December 19, 1803, no. 145 (as "Le cruel rit des pleurs qu'il fait verser; dessin précieux, à la pierre noire"; Fr 281); Barthélemy Roger; his sale, Mannheim, Paris, December 23-28, 1841, no. 139 (Fr 360); Constantini, by 1874 at least until 1879; anonymous sale (Constantini's, according to Guiffrey 1924, no. 19), Hôtel Drouot, Paris, room 3, April 15, 1882, no. 71 (as "L'Amour vainqueur"); purchased at that sale by Mme Poiret (Fr 1,000); Robert Hoe; his sale, American Art Association, New York, February 15-March 3, 1911, no. 3228; Richard Ederheimer Print Cabinet, New York, December 1913; anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 1, 1914, no. 89 (Fr. 1,000); Lilly Lawlor, Paris, 1927, acquired from her through Martin Birnbaum by Grenville L. Winthrop, July 1927 ($2,700), his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.889

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

• Jacques-Philippe Voïart, Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de P.P. Prud'hon, peintre membre de la Légion-d'honneur et de l"institut, Firmin Didot, Boulland et Cie (Paris, 1824), pg. 13
• Charles Blanc, Le trésor de la curiosité (2 vols.), Vve. J. Renouard (Paris, 1857-1858), pg. 217
• Théodore Michel Lejeune, Guide théorique et pratique de l’amateur de tableaux (3 vols.), Vve. J. Renouard (Paris, 1864-1865), vol. 1, pg. 315
• Charles Clément, Prud'hon; sa vie, ses oeuvres et sa correspondance, Didier et cie. (Paris, 1872), pp. 199, 206, 376
• Edmond de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessine et grave de P. P. Prud'hon, Rapilly (Paris, France, 1876), pg. 138
• B. Tailhades, "L'oeuvre de Prud'hon" [omissions and errors in Goncourt 1876], La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, Bureaux de la Gazette des beaux-arts (Paris, November 10, 1877), pg. 329
• Original Drawings by Old Masters, checklist, R. Ederheimer Print Cabinet (New York, 1913), pg. 48, no. 93 repr.
• Jean Guiffrey, L'oeuvre de P. P. Prud'hon, A. Colin (Paris, France, 1924), pp. 9-10, no. 19 (and p. 21, following no. 52, for the 1882 sale)
• Martin Birnbaum, The Last Romantic (New York, NY, 1960), pg. 199
• James H. Slayman, "The Drawings of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: A Critical Study" (1970), University of Wisconsin, Madison, pp. 25-27, 256, pl. 15
• Agnes Mongan, David to Corot: French Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1996), cat. no. 295, repr.
• Sylvain Laveissière, "À quel siècle Prud'hon appartient-il?", Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le service culturel, le 17 novembre 1997, ed. Sylvain Laveissière, La documentation française, Musée du Louvre (Paris, (1997) 2001), pg. 211
• Philippe Bordes, "Un graveur disponsible, Jacques-Louis Copia", Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le service culturel, le 17 novembre 1997, ed. Sylvain Laveissière, La documentation française, Musée du Louvre (Paris, (1997) 2001), pg. 113
• Sylvain Laveissière, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon [Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur], exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / Harry N. Abrams, Inc. [Réunion des Musées Nationaux] (New York, NY and Paris, France, 1997), under no. 32, fig. 32a
• Sylvain Laveissière, Prud'hon ou le rêve du bonheur, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1997), under no. 32, fig. 32a
• Sylvain Laveissière, Prud'hon: Le Cabinet des Dessins, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1997), p. 28 and color repr. p. 29
• Alvin L. Clark, Jr., "Un grand collectionneur américain de dessins français: Grenville L. Winthrop et les oeuvres de Pierre-Paul Prud'hon au Fogg Art Museum", Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le service culturel, le 17 novembre 1997, La documentation française, Musée du Louvre (Paris, 2001), pp. 177-202, p. 179, fig. 1, repr.
• Elizabeth Guffey, Drawing an Elusive Line: The Art of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, University of Delaware Press/ Associated University Presses (Newark (DE) and London, 2001), pp. 81, 89-91, fig. 53, repr. (caption error: reproduction of Fogg drawing, not engraving after it)
• Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), cat. no. 101, repr. (color), p. 30
• Louis-Antoine Prat, Le dessin français au XIXe siècle, Somogy Éditions d'Art (Paris, 2011), p. 110

Exhibition History

• Exposition des oeuvres de Prud'hon au profit de sa fille, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 05/04/1874 - 07/04/1874
• Exposition de dessins de maîtres anciens, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 05/01/1879 - 06/30/1879
• A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004

Verification Level