The Visit to the Nursery

c. 1775

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Painter, French, 1732 - 1806

Two women, a man, and three small children gather around a baby sleeping in a wicker cradle near an open window in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale skin with rosy cheeks. The cradle is just to left of center of the composition. It has a half canopy to shade the baby, and it sits on rockers. The baby sleeps with chubby arms over the covers tucked around the body. A woman sits on a low chest next to and on our side of the crib, near the lower left corner of the canvas. She has a prominent nose and jutting chin. She wears an oatmeal-brown bonnet and apron, and a muted red dress. She holds a staff with fabric or a spindle at the top tucked in one elbow, and the other hand rests on the canopy. A white cat lies like a loaf next to her feet. On the far side of the crib, a clean-shaven man kneels on a low platform covered by a pillow at the foot of the cradle and leans into the arms of a standing young woman. The man has a pointed nose and rounded chin, and he looks with heavy-lidded eyes at the baby. His long gray hair is tied at the nape of his neck, and he wears an ice-blue and tan long-tailed coat, breeches, and stockings. He rests one cheek against the arm of the woman who stands at his far shoulder. Her body faces the man, and she rests her other hand on his shoulder as she turns to look at the baby. A round, broad-brimmed hat casts a shadow over her delicate nose and round cheeks, and she wears a white dress with elbow-length sleeves and a full skirt. Three children stand behind the man’s feet and along the right edge of the canvas. The child closest to us has carrot-orange hair tied in a bun with a blue ribbon. She wears a white, puffy-sleeved shirt, and a parchment-white apron bunched over a pale pink skirt. She faces our left in profile, looking at the man, and holds one end of a ball of yarn that has rolled away from her. The boy behind her stands with his body facing us as he looks up and to our left. He wears a yellow jacket and a broad-brimmed hat pushed back on his head. Only the forehead and eyes of an even smaller child standing behind this pair are visible. Voluminous curtains part to either side of a window at the head of the cradle, near the upper left corner of the composition. An unlit lantern sits on the sill, and the sky beyond is dusk-blue. Bright light shines into the room, especially onto the man and woman and three children. A piece of furniture, perhaps a wardrobe, is on the far wall behind the woman, and the door to the room is open behind the children.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 54

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 73 x 92.1 cm (28 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.)
    framed: 97.8 x 116.8 cm (38 1/2 x 46 in.)

  • Accession

    1946.7.7

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries: The Visit to the Nursery, c. 1775

A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting. The woman and putti have pale, rosy skin, flushed cheeks, and hazel-brown eyes. To our left, the woman reclines with her upper body propped up on her far elbow, which rests on a steel-blue cushion as her legs stretch out to our right. Her light brown hair is braided and wrapped across the top of her head. She wears a loose, seafoam-green robe over a billowing ivory-white garment that has slipped off the shoulder closer to us. A round paint palette with brushes sticking out of its thumb hole and a roll of blue and white paper sit in the lower left corner, behind the woman. The woman and the objects are on a red cloth. In front of the woman is a rounded surface, perhaps a canvas, on which she draws. She holds up a gold-colored stylus with her right hand, closer to us, with a pointed piece of white chalk in one end and black chalk in the other. The canvas is taller than her head, so the child-like putto she draws on it is life-sized. The three nude putti on the far side of the canvas have copper or golden-blond, curly hair, flushed, rounded cheeks, short wings in white or peacock blue, pudgy torsos, and dimpled limbs. One putto, presumably the one the woman draws, sits back on the bank of clouds with a carnation-pink sash across his chest. He pulls his chin back and looks at her from under his eyebrows. He holds a gold-colored torch with a pink flame in one hand, and the other hand rests near a cylindrical quiver of arrows. Another putto peeks around the side of the canvas, and the third stands and props the canvas up. That third putto holds up a wreath of laurel leaves up over the canvas, above the woman’s drawing hand. The bank of clouds is parchment-brown with muted pink and blue highlights against a vivid blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F Boucher – 1765.”

Scholarly Series:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Traditionally associated with the collection of Jean François Leroy de Sennéville [1715-1784], Paris; (his sale, Chariot and Paillet at Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 5-11 April 1780, no. 50, bought in); (his sale, Paillet, Paris, 26 April 1784, no. 26); purchased by Basan, Paris. possibly Madame Goman, Paris; (her sale, Le Brun and Julliot, Paris, 6 February 1792 and days following, no. 100); Le Brun. possibly Amédée Constantin, Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Pérignon, Paris, 18 November 1816, no. 365); bought in or purchased by Pérignon.[1] possibly purchased 1851 by the father of Jules Burat; by inheritance to Jules Burat, by 1883; (his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28-29 April 1885, no. 71, bought in); probably by inheritance to Madame Louis Burat, Paris, by 1907 until at least 1921.[2] (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London), by 1939;[3] sold 1942 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York.[4]
[1] See the discussion of the early provenance by Richard Rand in Philip Conisbee et al., French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 37, 182-187.
[2] The painting was lent by Mme Burat to 1907 and 1921 exhibitions in Paris; it was not included in Mme Burat's sale at Galerie Charpentier in Paris on 17 June 1937.
[3] The painting was exhibited at Wildenstein's, New York, in 1939.
[4] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2355.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1883

  • L'Art au XVIIIe siècle Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883-1884, no. 53.

1907

  • Exposition Chardin et Fragonard, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1907, no. 90.

1921

  • Exposition d'oeuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, Paris, 1921, no. 69.

1939

  • The Great Tradition of French Painting, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1939, no. 22.

1940

  • Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 201.

1946

  • Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 772.

1997

  • Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in 18th-century France, Hood Museum of Aart, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1997-1998, no. 25, repro.

2006

  • Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806): Orígenes e influencias. De Rembrandt al siglo XXI, CaixaForum Barcelona, 2006-2007, no. 41, repro.

2007

  • Fragonard: Les plaisirs d'un siècle, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2007-2008, no. 45, repro.

Bibliography

1880

  • Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880-1884: 2:334.

1889

  • Portalis, Roger. Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1889: 64, 119, 202, 291.

1906

  • Nolhac, Pierre de. J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1906: 127.

1907

  • Dayot, Armand, and Léandre Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1907: 15-16, no. 120, repro.

1944

  • "Kress Makes Important Donation of French Painting to the Nation." Art Digest 18, no. 19 (1 August 1944): 5.

  • "One of the Greatest Donations of XVIIIth Century French Painting Ever Received by a Museum - The Kress Collection." The Illustrated London News 115, no. 2992 (26 August 1944):249, repro.

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 122, color repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 79, repro. p. 65

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 170, repro.

1948

  • Wildenstein and Company. French XVIII Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 244, repro. 237.

  • Réau, Louis. Fragonard: sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956: 172.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 370, repro.

1960

  • Wildenstein, Georges. The Paintings of Fragonard. New York, 1960: no. 459

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 51.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 43, repro.

1971

  • Watson, Francis. "Fragonard." Art News Annual 37 (1971):86

1972

  • Mandel, Gabriele. L'Opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972: no. 482, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 132, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 333-335, fig. 292.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3,927 (17 June 1977).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 341, no. 460, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 158, repro.

1987

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre." Fribourg, 1987. English edition New York, 1988: 89-92, no. 123, repro. pl. 118.

1989

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989: no. 304.

1990

  • Sheriff, Mary D. Fragonard. Art and Eroticism. Chicago and London, 1990: 117, fig. 27.

1991

  • Sheriff, Mary D. "Fragonard’s Erotic Mothers and the Politics of Reproduction.” In Eroticism and the Body Politic. Ed. Lynn Hunt. Baltimore, 1991:16-40, fig. 1.2.

1994

  • Barker, Emma. Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment: The Family in French Art 1755-1785. Ph.D. diss, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1994: I: 163-165.

2001

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Fragonard: quelques nouveautés et quelque questions." In Mélanges en hommage à Pierre Rosenberg: peintures et dessins en France et en Italie XVIIe - XVIIIe siècles. Paris, 2001: 173, no. 18.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 270-272, fig. 113a (not in the exhibition).

  • Barker, Emma. Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment. Cambridge, 2005: 139-143.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 37, 182-187, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q8703547

You may be interested in

Loading Results