Summer

1711

Alexandre François Desportes French, 1661-1743

On View

Fashionable Living, Level 3, South Wing

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Alexandre-François Desportes’s talent for painting still lifes and animals is said to have emerged during his childhood. Born in the French countryside, he became ill during a visit to Paris and was given a pencil and an exercise book to amuse himself during his long convalescence. What resulted were innumerable sketches of animals and plants that drew heavily upon his memories of rural life. Desportes became so highly esteemed in this genre that both Louis XIV and Louis XV commissioned him to paint portraits of their favorite hunting dogs. In this painting, which is signed and dated 1711, Desportes has created a lush garden scene replete with abundant flowers and shrubbery and overflowing baskets of summer fruit. The dead hare and quail lying in stalks of grain hint that summer has reached its apex and that the hunting season will soon begin.

Title Summer

Artwork Date 1711

Artist Alexandre François Desportes

Life Dates 1661-1743

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 58 1/2 × 45 1/2 inches (148.6 × 115.6 cm) Framed: 70 3/8 × 57 1/2 × 5 1/4 inches (178.8 × 146.1 × 13.3 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Elizabeth L. Heavenrich Bequest Fund, Benson and Edith Ford Fund and Eleanor Clay Ford Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 65.393

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, center, under cherries: Desportes | 1711

Provenance

by 1965, (Heim Gallery, Paris, France);
1965-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art et al. Tokyo, 1989, pp. 64, 209, cat. 32, (ill.); Japanese text, p. 161.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Alexandre François Desportes, Summer, 1711, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Elizabeth L. Heavenrich Bequest Fund, Benson and Edith Ford Fund and Eleanor Clay Ford Fund, 65.393.