Signed and dated, upper right: L Lagrenee/1781

December 2, 1795, probably consigned by the artist, sold by (Salle de vente, rue Française no. 13, près celle du Petit-Lion, Paris, France) Villers sale, part of lot 3

1869, sold by (Dubourg, Paris, France)

March 23, 1908, sold by (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France) lot 31 [titled La Sculpture]

1908, purchased by Lesour de Villiers

(Galerie Joseph Hahn, Paris, France)

1972, (H. Shickman Gallery, New York, New York, USA)

1972-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Goncourt, E. and J. de. "Livre de raison de Louis Lagrenée." L'Art 4 (1877): pp. 25-26, 136-141, 255-260, no. 301. Reprint, Portraits intimes du XVIIIe siècle: Etudes nouvelles d'après les lettres autographes et les documents inédits, Paris, 1878, pp. 323-362. Benezit, Dicationnaire, vol. 5. 1952, pp. 359-360. Reprint, 1966. Sandoz, M. "Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, dit l'ainé (1725-1805), peintre d'histoire." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (1961): pp. 115-136. Sandoz, M. "The Drawings of Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée: Notes for a Tentative Catalogue Raisonné." Art Quarterly 26 (1963) pp. 47-70. Bulletin of the DIA 52, no. 1 (1973): p. 66 (ill.). "Recent Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." Art Quarterly 36 (1973): p. 115 (ill.). K.R. "Shorter Notices: Recent Museum Acquisitions." The Burlington Magazine 115, no. 843 (June 1973): pp. 393, 399 (fig. 67). La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplement to Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 1249 (February 1972): p. 132, no. 473 (ill.). Diderot, D. Salons, 3 vols., ed. J. Adhémar. Oxford, 1975-1983, vol. 1 p. 43 (ill.). [incorrect identification.] Schnapper, A. "Louis Lagrenée and the Theme of Pygmalion." Bulletin of the DIA 53, nos. 3 & 4 (1975): pp.112-117 (ill. on cover). From David to Delacroix, French Painting 1774-1830: The Age of Revolution. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Paris, Detroit, and New York, 1974/1975, pp. 64, 521-522, cat. 115 (pl. 18). Nakayama, K. and S. Takashima. Nu Feminin dans l'Art, Histoires et Legendes, vol. 6. Tokyo, 1980, no. 42. Sandoz, M. Les Lagrenée, vol. 1 (Louis (Jean, François) Lagrenée, 1725-1805). Paris, 1983, no. 349 (ill.). The Loves of the Gods: Mythological Painting from Watteau to David. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Kimbell Art Museum. Paris, Philadelphia, and Fort Worth, 1991/1992, pp. 502-507, cat. 63 (ill.). Stoichita, Victor. O Efeito Pigmaliã: Para Uma Antropologia Histórica Dos Simulacros. Lisbon, 2011, no. 79 (ill.). America Collects Eighteenth Century French Painting. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2017, pp. 29, 165, 172, 274-275 (pl. 13 and detail p. 29). Betzer, Sarah. Animating the Antique: Sculptural Encounter in the Age of Aesthetic Theory. University Park, 2021, p. 159, (fig. 94 ill.).

Louis Jean François Lagrenée, Pygmalion and Galatea, 1781, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Long Fund, Miscellaneous Gifts Fund, et al., 72.296.