After five years of study in Rome, the young Fragonard began an extensive journey throughout Italy with Jean-Claude Richard, the Abbé de Saint-Non. The abbott commissioned the artist to make copies of the masters in each city they visited, and gained access to the masterpieces in churches and in important collections. The twenty-eight-year-old artist made more than 200 drawings for his patron during their travels, and Saint-Non later engraved and published many of them. The largest single group of drawings recording this Italian journey, 139 of them, is in The Norton Simon Foundation collection. The drawings form a virtual inventory of the treasures in churches, museums, and private collections of the day. While one can recognize the work of the masters in the student's copies, Fragonard continually reveals his own style and personality.
Details
- Artist Name: Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732-1806)
- Title: Study After Mattia Preti: Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine (from San Pietro a Maiella); Study After Mattia Preti: St. Catherine Cured by an Angel (from San Pietro a Maiella)
- Date: 1760-61
- Medium: Black chalk on paper
- Dimensions: 17-3/4 x 13 in. (45.1 x 33.0 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1970.03.002a-b.D
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Comtesse de Bearn-Behague, Paris (began acquiring the drawings in 1894, sold 1927 to;
Hon. Irwin Laughlin, Meridian House, Washington, D.C., by descent to his daughter;
Mrs. Hubert Chanler, Geneso, New York (sale, London, Sotheby’s, 10 June 1959, lot 17, to);
[Maggs Brothers, Ltd., London].
Private Collection.
[Fl. Tulkens, Brussels, Bookseller, sold 1970 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Fragonard in Naples: Drawings After the Old Masters
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-11-18 to 1994-05-22
18th Century Drawings from California Collections
- Montgomery Art Center, 1976-01-16 to 1976-02-29
- Sacramento, E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1976-03-14 to 1976-04-11
Fragonard Drawings from North American Collections
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1978-11-19 to 1979-01-21
- Fogg Art Museum, 1979-02-16 to 1979-04-01
- The Frick Collection, 1979-04-20 to 1979-06-03
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 716 p. 331
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