Diana and Endymion

c. 1753/1756

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Artist, French, 1732 - 1806

Close to us, a woman and a winged, child-like putto float on clouds above a clean-shaven young man in a forest setting in this horizontal painting. All three people have smooth, pale skin, rosy cheeks, and ash-blond hair. The man reclines with his torso propped so his feet extend along the rocky ground to our left. He rests his head in his right hand, farther from us, with that elbow resting on a rock. We look up onto the underside of his chin and delicate features. A scarlet-red robe falls from his shoulders and across his hips. One knee is propped up, and that foot is tucked behind his other ankle. His muscular torso, arms, and legs are bare. His left hand, closer to us, rests by his side and loosely holds a staff. Three tan-colored sheep with long faces lie or stand behind the man, in the lower right corner of the painting. A light gray hound dog with floppy ears sleeps with its drooping muzzle resting on its paws in the shadows at the man’s feet. The woman floats just above the man, reclining on a fog-gray cloud with her feet angled toward the man’s torso. Her curls are held back by a topaz-blue ribbon, and she looks down at the man, a faint smile on her lips. A loose white garment partially covered by a blue robe falls from her shoulders, leaving one breast and one leg bare. She reaches outward with her left hand, palm out, and the other hand rests down on the cloud alongside her. A sharply pointed, luminous crescent moon curves up to each side behind the cloud. The chubby, nude, baby-like putto nestles on his belly in a cloud between the man and woman. He has short, tousled hair, stubby wings, and his skin is flushed pink. An arrow held in one hand points toward the man, and the putto rests his other hand in a bunch of pink roses. Plants and flowers grow in patches on the ground around the man. The sky above is framed with steel-gray clouds against pale blue.

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 55

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Timken Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 94.9 x 136.8 cm (37 3/8 x 53 7/8 in.)
    framed: 125.1 x 168.3 cm (49 1/4 x 66 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1960.6.2

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries: Diana and Endymion, c. 1753/1756

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

Sir Richard Wallace, 1st bt. [1818-1890], London and Paris, by 1883;[1] by inheritance to his wife, Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace [1819-1897], Paris and London; by inheritance to her adviser and secretary, Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], London and Paris; by inheritance to his friend, Josephine Victoria Sackville-West, Lady Sackville [1864-1936], Sevenoaks, Kent [painting remained in Paris during this time]; sold 1913 to (Jacques Seligmann and Co., Inc., Paris and New York, no. 579 of Seligmann inventory); sold 1914 to (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold March 1922 to John McCormack [1884-1945], New York; (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1924 to William R. Timken [1866-1949], New York;[2] by inheritance to his widow, Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959] New York; bequest 1960 to NGA.
[1] Alexandre Ananoff, with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher, 2 vols., Lausanne and Paris, 1976: 1:173, no. 36, confused the early provenance of NGA's Diana and Endymion by Fragonard with that of the Boucher painting of the same title. It was the Boucher painting that appeared in sales in Paris in 1773, 1779, and 1830.
[2] Provenance information beginning with Knoedler's 1914 purchase from Seligmann's through their 1924 sale to Timken is from David Rust's notes of a telephone conversation on 15 July 1981 with Nancy Little, Knoedler librarian (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1883

  • L'Art du XVIIIe siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883-1884, no. 7, as by Boucher.

1920

  • Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1920, no. 90, repro., as by Boucher.

1966

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1966-1981, as by Boucher.

1991

  • The Loves of the Gods: Mythological Painting from Watteau to David, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kimbell Art Musuem, Fort Worth, 1991-1992, no. 60, repro.

2015

  • Fragonard amoreux: galant et libertin, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2015-2016, no. 6, repro.

Bibliography

1906

  • Soullié, Louis, and Charles Masson. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de François Boucher. Paris, 1906: no. 124 (published as a supplement to André Michel, François Boucher, Paris, 1906).

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 18, as by Boucher.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 11, repro., as Boucher

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 40, repro., as Boucher

1980

  • Ananoff, Alexandre, with Daniel Wildenstein. L'opera completa di Boucher. Milan, 1980: no. 36.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 334, no. 447, color repro., as by François Boucher.

1985

  • The First Painters of the King. Exh. cat. Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York; New Orleans Museum of Art; Columbus Museum of Art, 1985:137

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 59, repro., as Boucher

1986

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Fragonard dans les musées français." Revue du Louvre (1986):58+, n. 6

1987

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Fragonard. Exh. Cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988. Paris, 1987: 34, repro.

  • Cabanne, Pierre. Fragonard. Paris, 1987: 19.

1988

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Paris,1988:39, repro.

1989

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989:28

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: 214, fig. 80a (not in the exhibition).

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. 29, 151-156, color repro.

2015

  • Goulemot, Jean M. Le petit dictionnaire: Fragonard, en 16 plaisirs. Paris, 2015: 76-77, color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: in blue crayon, "(5855)"; in blue crayon, "15444"; paper label, printed "15444"

Wikidata ID

Q20178055

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