About the Artwork
In the coolness of dusk, a woman with an infant asleep on her back and a toddler beside her are about to step into a stream or gully underfoot. The hints of autumnal red in the foliage to the lower left and the trepidation of the little child who clings to her hand suggest that the water will be chilly. One of a set of four paintings all owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Shepherdess is an early work by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, who would go on to become one of the most technically daring painters of the French eighteenth century. This composition highlights the playfulness that characterizes many of his works. The series evokes the progression of the seasons, from the cultivation of a springtime garden to autumn’s impending chill. The paintings were originally intended to adorn the walls of an ornate interior, and their decorative function is emphasized by their curvilinear gilded frames.
The Shepherdess
between 1754 and 1755
Jean Honoré Fragonard
1732-1806
French
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 58 1/2 × 36 7/8 inches (148.6 × 93.7 cm) Framed: 64 3/4 × 42 5/8 × 1 inches (164.5 × 108.3 × 2.5 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Horace E. Dodge Memorial Fund
71.390
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
possibly 18th century, (Hôtel de Mortemart-Rochechouart, Paris, France);possibly private collection (northern France);
Baron Roger Portalis (Paris, France);
by 1907, Eugen Kraemer [sic] (Paris, France);
May 5-6, 1913, Eugène Kraemer [sic] sale (Paris, France) lot 32;
by 1914, (Wildenstein with E. Gimpel, New York, New York, USA);
Judge Elbert H. Gary [d. 1927] (New York, New York, USA);
(Duveen Brothers, New York, New York, USA);
acquired by Anna Thomson Dodge (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA);
June 25, 1971, sold by (Christie's, London, England) lot 6;
1971-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Portalis, Baron R. Scènes de la vie champêtre. Paris, 1902, pp. 20-21.
Foster, J.J., ed. French Art from Watteau to Prud'hon. London, 1905-07, vol. 3, p. 46.
Chardin-Fragonard. Exh. cat., Galerie Georges Petit. Paris, 1907, nos. 113-116.
Dayot, A. and L. Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1907, pp. 134-137, no. 136 (ill.).
Frantz, H. "The Chardin-Fragonard Exhibition." The International Studio 33 (1907-1908): pp. 25-35, p. 30 (ill.).
Fragonard. Exh. cat., E. Gimpel and Wildenstein and Co. New York, 1914, no. 24.
Apollinaire, G. Fragonard and the United States. Paris, 1914, pp. 14-21, p. 17 (ill.).
Mauclair, C. Un Tableau de Fragonard. Paris, p. 13.
"The Gary Fragonards." The American Art News 6 (December 8, 1917): p. 3.
Duveen, J. A Catalogue of Works of Art in the Collection of Anna Thomson Dodge, vol. 1. Detroit, 1939, (ill.).
Réau, L. Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956, p. 172.
Wildenstein, G. The Paintings of Fragonard. London, 1960, p. 201, no. 39, p. 200 (ill.) (fig. 28).
La Coste-Messelière, M.G. de. "Anatomie d'une vente publique." L'Oeil (May 1971): pp. 27, 30.
Apollinaire on Art. New York, 1972, pp. 433-435.
"La chronique des arts." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 79 (January 1972): suppl., pp. 94-95 (figs. 334-337).
Wildenstein, D. and G. Mandel. L'opera completa di Fragonard, Milan, 1972, no. 35.
"La chronique des arts." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 79 (January 1972): pp. 94-95 (fig. 337).
Bulletin of the DIA: Annual Report 51, no. 1 (1972): pp. 7, 14 (ill.).
Davidson, R. "Museum Accessions." Antiques Magazine (March 1973): p. 441.
K.R. "Shorter Notices: Recent Museum Acquisitions." Burlington Magazine 115 (June 1973): pp. 393, 400 (fig. 72).
Paris – New York: A Continuing Romance. Exh. cat., Wildenstein and Co. New York 1977, p. 48, no. 37 (fig. 45).
Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 59, color pl. XV.
Sutton, D. "Selected Prefaces: IX. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: The World as Illusion." Apollo 125, new series 300 (February 1987): p. 104, pp. 102-113.
Fragonard. Exh. cat., Grand Palais and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Paris and New York, 1987, pp. 40-45, cat. 1 (ill.).
Cuzin, J.-P. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Life and Work. New York, 1988, pp. 28-30, 263, no. 14, (fig. 26).
Rosenberg, P. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989, no. 29.
Masterpieces from The Detroit Institute of Arts. Bunkamura Museum of Art, Municipal Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Ibaraki, 1989, pp. 74, 213-214, cat. 42 (ill.).
Sheriff, Mary D. Fragonard: Art and Eroticism. Chicago, 1990, pp. 95-113, 116 (fig. 17).
Dell, T., et al. The Dodge Collection of Eighteenth-Century French and English Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York and Detroit, 1996, no. 64, pp 202-3, (ill.) p. 204.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Shepherdess, between 1754 and 1755, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Horace E. Dodge Memorial Fund, 71.390.
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