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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION
image of A Young Girl Reading
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (artist)
French, 1732 - 1806
A Young Girl Reading, c. 1776
oil on canvas
Overall: 81.1 x 64.8 cm (31 15/16 x 25 1/2 in.) framed: 104.9 x 89.5 x 2.2 cm (41 5/16 x 35 1/4 x 7/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Mellon Bruce in memory of her father, Andrew W. Mellon
1961.16.1
From the Tour: 18th-Century France — Boucher and Fragonard
Object 6 of 8

Provenance

Possibly comte du Barry, Paris;[1] (Du Barry sale, Paillet at Hôtel d'Aligre, Paris, 11 March 1776 and days following, no. 80); purchased by Mailly. (sale, Paillet at Hôtel d'Aligre, Paris, 7 February 1777, no. 15). Leroy de Sennéville, Paris; (his sale, Chariot and Paillet at Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 5 April 1780 and days following, no. 59); purchased by Duquesnoy, Paris; (his sale, at his residence by Regnault, Paris, 1-3 March 1803, no. 19). (sale, Alliance des Arts, Paris, 26 April 1844, no. 14). Casimir Perrin, marquis de Cypierre [1783-1844], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Thoré, Paris, 10 March 1845 and days following, no. 55). comte de Kergorlay, by 1889. (Gimpel and Wildenstein, Paris); sold 1899 to Ernest Cronier [1840-1905], Paris; (his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 4-5 December 1905, 1st day, no. 8); purchased by Ducrey. Dr. Théodore Tuffier [1859-1929], Paris, by 1910 [or possibly purchased through Ducrey at Cronier sale], until at least 1928. (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London); Alfred W. Erickson [1876-1936], New York, by 1930;[2] by inheritance to his wife, Anna Edith McCann Erickson [d. 1961], New York; (her sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 15 November 1961, no. 16); purchased by NGA with funds provided by Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York.

[1] Provenance according to Georges Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, complete edition, New York, 1960: no. 391.

[2] An annotated copy of the 1905 sales catalogue in the NGA Library provides Ducrey's name, who was possibly buying for Tuffier. Correspondence between the Paris and New York offices of Duveen Brothers, Inc. dated 1927 and 1928 discusses the painting and the possibility of purchasing it from Tuffier; Wildenstein is also mentioned as a possible buyer (Duveen Brothers Records, Accession No. 960015, Getty Research Institute, Reel 97, Box 242, folder 16; copies in NGA curatorial files). René Gimpel (Diary of an Art Dealer, translated by John Rosenberg, New York, 1966: 398), in a diary entry of 16 February 1930, writes of seeing the painting two days before at the Erickson residence, and describes it as "from the old Crosnier[sic] Collection, bought at his sale by Professor Tuffier..."

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