Portrait of a Young Man

possibly c. 1770

Media Options

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On View

NGA, West Building, G-011-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 65.3 x 54.4 cm (25 11/16 x 21 7/16 in.)
    framed: 97.2 x 86.4 x 10.2 cm (38 1/4 x 34 x 4 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.18

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Félix Doistau, Paris, by 1907; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 9-11 June 1909, 1st day, no. 37, as Portrait of an Unknown Man by Fragonard); Ducrey. Dr. Théodore Tuffier [1859-1929], Paris, by 1921 until at least 1926. (Jacques Seligmann and Co., Inc., Paris and New York), by 1948; sold March 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Doistau lent the painting to a 1907 exhibition. Tuffier lent the painting to exhibitions in 1921 and 1926, and although Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977: 336 n. 13, says that according to the Seligmann Gallery Tuffier still owned the painting in 1945, this could not be possible because Tuffier died in 1929. Perhaps the painting remained in Tuffier's family, and they were the "private collection" that lent it to a 1945 exhibition. The Seligmann Gallery sent a pamphlet about the painting to the Kress Foundation in 1948 (Germain Seligman, letter to Stephen Pichetto, 8 April 1948, The Records of Jacques Seligmann & Co., Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., box 76), and showed the painting to the National Gallery's John Walker and Kress Foundation staff in November 1951, noting it had been "acquired in Paris" (Guy Emerson, memo, 7 November 1951); copies of letter and memo in NGA curatorial files. The terms of payment for the invoice of 8 February 1952, from Seligmann to the Kress Foundation for this painting and several other works were met with a check dated 7 March 1952 (annotated copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1720).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1921

  • Exposition d'oeuvres de J.-H. Fragonard, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, no. 20, as Portrait d'homme.

1926

  • Exposition Rétrospective d'art français, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1926, no. 51

1945

  • Portraits français, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1945, no. 44, repro.

1990

  • J. H. Fragonard et Hubert Robert à Roma, Villa Medicis, Académie de France à Rome, 1990-1991, no. 1.

2006

  • Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806): Orígenes e influencias. De Rembrandt al siglo XXI, CaixaForum Barcelona, 2006-2007, no. 7, repro.

Bibliography

1907

  • Dayot, Armand, and Léandre Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1907: 11, no. 76, repro.

1929

  • Grappe, Georges. La vie et l'oeuvre de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1929: pl. 8.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 74, no. 25, repro.

  • Réau, Louis. Fragonard: sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956:174, repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 372, repro.

1961

  • Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961: repro. pl. 102.

1962

  • Carpenter, Richard Bruce. "Review of Georges Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard." The Art Bulletin 44 (1962): 360.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 52, as by Fragonard.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 44, repro.

1972

  • Mandel, Gabriele. L'Opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972: no. 606, repro., as attributed to Fragonard.

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: 335-336, fig. 291.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 159, repro.

1987

  • Lévêque, Jean Jacques, La vie et l'oeuvre de Jean Honoré Fragonard. Paris, 1987: 10-11, repro.

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. Fragonard, Life and Work. New York, 1988: 40, pl. 44, 243, 269, no. 49*, repro. (French ed. Paris, 1987).

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Fragonard. Exh. Cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988. Paris, 1987: 555, fig. 4.

1989

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989: 67.

2001

  • Leclair, Anne. Louis-Jacques Durameau (1733-1796). Paris, 2001.

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. 51, 235-239, color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: label "GALERIE CHARPENTIER/ 76, RUE DU FG SAINT-HONORE - PARIS/ SERVICE DES EXPOSITIONS"; circular customs stamp: "DOUANES FRANCAISES*PARIS/ SERVICE DES EXPOSITIONS"; corner of a label with handwritten number, either "19" or "6". On stretcher and passepartout:"1908".

Wikidata ID

Q20178522

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