Don Quixote Attacking the Windmill

1780s

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Associated Names
Jean Honoré Fragonard

Artist, French, 1732 - 1806

This is a drawing of a figure on horseback in a dynamic pose. The figure appears to be wearing armor and is holding a weapon. The horse is in a dynamic pose in a chaotic environment with falling beams. The background includes foliage and a disrupted structure. The drawing has loose, sketchy lines and washes of brown, creating a sense of motion and action. The composition is filled with diagonal lines that suggest movement and chaos.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    black chalk with brown and gray wash on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler

  • Dimensions

    overall: 41.4 x 28.6 cm (16 5/16 x 11 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2000.9.9

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon, Paris, by 1795, one of 19 Don Quixote drawings by Fragonard owned by him (sale, Paris, 1826, no. 728 [the group]); to Delaunay. Lt. Col. E. W. Blunt Mackenzie, Castle Leod, Strathpeffer, Scotland (sale, Sotheby's, London, 26 July 1933, no. 94); Hon. Irwin Boyle Laughlin, Washington, D.C. (not in Lugt), 1933; his wife, Therese Iselin Laughlin, Washington, D.C., 1941; their daughter, Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, New York, 1958; gift to NGA, 2000.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • Eighteenth Century Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, NGA, Washington, D.C., 1982, no. 9.

2000

  • Drawings and Prints from the Permanent Collection (Summer 2000), National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000 (no catalogue).

2007

  • Fragonard, Les plaisirs d'un siècle. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2007-2008, no. 76 (Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachez).

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 206-208, 288, no. 91a (color).

Bibliography

1877

  • Portalis, Baron Roger de. Les dessinateurs d'illustrations au 18e siècle. 2 parts in 4 vols. Paris, 1877, 1 (pt. 2): 224, 229 (the series).

1889

  • Portalis, Baron Roger. Fragonard. Sa vie et son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1889: 2: 215, 299 (the series).

1945

  • Mongan, Elizabeth, Philip Hofer, and Jean Seznec. Fragonard Drawings for Ariosto. New York, 1945: 19-20, 35 (the series).

1961

  • Ananoff, Alexandre. "Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard et son père." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (1961): 155-157 (the series as A. E. Fragonard).

  • Ananoff, Alexandre. L'oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732 - 1806). 4 vols. Paris, 1961-1970, 4: no. 2667 (the series as Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard).

1978

  • Williams, Eunice. Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; Frick Collection, New York. Washington, 1978: under no. 60 (the series).

1987

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Fragonard. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987: 499-500 (the series).

1996

  • Laughton, Bruce. "Daumier's Drawings of Don Quixote." Master Drawings 34, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 400-401 (the series).

2003

  • Dupuy-Vachey, Marie-Anne. Fragonard et le Roland Furieux. Paris, 2003: 8 (the series).

2007

  • Dupuy-Vachey, Marie-Anne. Fragonard: Les plaisirs d'un siècle. Exh. cat. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2007: 140-142 (the series).

2012

  • Percival, Melissa. Fragonard and the Fantasy Figure: Painting the Imagination. Burlington, Vt., 2012: xiv, 217, fig. 6.8.

Markings

on verso, stamped by French Customs

Wikidata ID

Q64581238

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