Two people stand beside a small tree with a bridge and village in the distance.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The bearded man on the left leans in, grasps the trunk with his left hand and cuts a low branch from the small tree with a curved scythe tool. An older woman stands on the right, looking at him pointing to the upper left and tree canopy while holding a staff in her left hand that points to the lower right. There’s shrubbery behind them and a small village with smoke flowing from a chimney in the background. The white highlights and blue color of the paper give a twilight or evening effect.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.331
People
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French (Paris 1686 - 1755 Beauvais)
Title
The Scythian Philosopher
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Scene from the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine: The Woodcutter and the Forest
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
18th century
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/317943

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink and gray wash, heightened with white white gouache, on blue antique laid paper
Dimensions
31 × 25.7 cm (12 3/16 × 10 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: lower left, brown ink: JB. Oudry / 1733
  • inscription: signed and dated, lower left, brown ink: JB. Oudry / 1733
  • inscription: laid down--none visible

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
One of a series of drawings for illustrations to the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine bound in two albums sold by the artist to Louis-Regnard de Montenault, Paris (c. 1751); Jean-Jacques and Marie-Jacques de Bure, Paris (De Bure Frères, Booksellers, by 1828); Jean-Jacques de Bure, Paris, by descent (as of 1847); his sale, Paris, Potier, 1-18 December 1853, lot 344; Comte Adolphe-Narcisse Thibaudeau, Paris; Eugénie Doche, Paris; Auguste Fontaine, Bookseller, Paris; Félix Solar, Paris (1856); his sale, Paris, Pillet, 19 November-8 December 1860, lot 627; Baron Isidore Taylor, Paris; private sale to Damascène Morgand and Charles Fatout, Booksellers, Paris (c. 1876); private sale to Émile Pereire, Paris; private sale to Louis Roederer, Reims; his nephew, Léon Olry-Roderer, Reims and Paris, by descent; Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd., London; Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach and the Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia and New York (as of 1923); private sale to Raphael Esmerian, New York (c. 1946); his sale, Paris, Palais Galliera (Ader, Picard, Tajan), 6 June 1973, part 3, lot 46; one album sold to the British Rail Pension Fund, London (resold at Sotheby’s on 3 July 1996 in London, which has remained intact) and the other album (the source of the present drawing) sold to Art Associates Partnership (Dr. Claus Virch), New York, who sold the sheets individually; sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 25 January 2002, lot 105, sold; to Jeffrey E. Horvitz, Boston, gift; to Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, 2006.331

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.331
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Jean Locquin, "Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre de Jean-Baptiste Oudry: peintre du roi (1686-1755)" , Archives de l'art français, Libraire F. de Nobele (Paris, 1912), vol. 6, pp. 1-209, cat. no. 1189, p. 172
  • Hal N. Opperman, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Garland (New York, 1977), vol. 3, cat. no. D461, p. 673
  • 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. 52, repr.

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