Ceres (Summer)

c. 1717/1718

Antoine Watteau

Artist, French, 1684 - 1721

A woman wearing a white and pale pink robe and holding a sickle sits on billowing clouds flanked by a lion and two young people in this vertical, oval painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks and blond hair. At the center of the composition, the woman, Ceres, sits facing us and she looks at us with lidded, gray eyes under faint brows. She has an oval face, small, pink, bow-shaped lips, and a dimple in her chin. Golden stalks of wheat along with pale blue cornflowers and red poppies create a crown in her upswept blond hair. Her white chemise falls off her shoulders and is loosely held in place with a rose-pink band that wraps around her right shoulder, to our left, and under the opposite arm. Shimmering, shell-pink drapery falls over her legs and covers one foot. Her other bare foot rests on a cloud like a footstool. A bundle of wheat is pinned between the fabric under her right elbow, to our left, and the lion there. With a long mane, his tawny face peers around Ceres’s hip from under the wheat. His mouth is pulled wide to expose one fang, and his pink tongue curls out of the other side. An iron-gray lobster crawls up the lower left side of the clouds beneath the lion. Ceres holds the curving blade of the sickle upright in her other hand by that hip. Near the sickle, a young woman and a child are seen from the chest up, each carrying a bundle of wheat. The young woman faces Ceres and looks off to our left, and the younger child, above her, looks down. Ceres and her companions are set against an arch of pale azure-blue sky filled with tan-colored and light pink clouds.

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 54

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 141.6 x 115.7 cm (55 3/4 x 45 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.50

More About this Artwork

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

Scholarly Article:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries: Ceres (Summer), c. 1717/1718

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned by Pierre Crozat [1665-1740] for the dining room of his hôtel on rue de Richelieu, Paris; by inheritance with the hôtel to his nephew, Louis François Crozat, marquis du Châtel [1691-1750], Paris; by inheritance with the hôtel to his daughter, Louise-Honorine Crozat [1737-1801, married 1750 to the duc de Choiseul], Paris; the hôtel was sold in 1772 and demolished shortly thereafter, before which the painting was removed, probably to the Choiseul's Château de Chanteloup, Touraine; (estate sale of Etienne François, duc de Choiseul [1719-1785], Paillet, Paris, 18 December 1786, no. 3, with Winter from the same series); purchased by Meunier. Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun [1748-1813], Paris; (his own sale, Le Brun, Paris, 11 April-8 May 1791, 10th day [April 20], no. 204, with Winter); Rebes; (sale, Le Brun, Paris, 15 November 1791, no. 95, with Winter).[1] Roehn, Paris.[2] Charles Wertheimer [d. 1911], London. (Charles Sedelmeyer Galleries, Paris), by 1895; sold 1898 to Sir Lionel Phillips, bt. [1855-1936], Tylney Hall, Winchfield;[3] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25 April 1913, no. 72); Nicholson. Henri Michel-Lévy [1845-1914], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 12-13 May 1919, no. 28); Léon Michel-Lévy [1846-1925], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 17-18 June 1925, 1st day, no. 160);[4] Batteroze or Betteroze. Charles-Louis Dreyfus [1870-1929], Paris.[5] (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London), by 1935;[6] sold February 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[7] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Annotated copies of the sale catalogue give the name variously as "Rebes," "Mr. le president Rebe," and "de Rebes." See the extended description of this sale in the sale catalogues portion of the Getty Provenance Index Database, J. Paul Getty Trust (photocopy in NGA curatorial files), which includes the comment: "It is not known from which legislative body his title of president is taken, nor has his full name been found."
[2] Pierre Rosenberg says this was "probably Adolphe Eugène Gabriel Roehn (1780-1867) and not his son" (Alphonse); Margaret Morgan Grasselli and Pierre Rosenberg, Watteau 1684-1721, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin; Washington, D.C., 1984: 326.
[3] According to the 1895 Sedelmeyer catalogue and the catalogue of the 1935 Copenhagen exhibition, and repeated in William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1951-1956, Washington, D.C., 1956: 204, the painting was supposed to have been in the Hugh A.J. Munro of Novar collection in Ross, Scotland. However, Spring, another painting in the series, was actually in the Munro collection (and sold at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 1 June 1878, no. 149).
[4] Pierre Rosenberg, ed., Vies anciennes de Watteau, Paris, 1984, erroneously says this sale was in May.
[5] Published as with Dreyfus in Louis Dimier, Les peintres français du XVIIIe siècle. Histoire des vies et catalogue des oeuvres, 2 vols., Paris and Brussels, 1928-1930: 1(1928):31, no. 26.
[6] The painting was lent by Wildenstein to a 1935 exhibition in Copenhagen.
[7] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/468) is dated February 10, 1954, and was for a total of fourteen paintings; payments by the Foundation continued to March 1957.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1909

  • National Loan Exhibition in Aid of National Gallery Funds, Grafton Galleries, London, 1909-1910, no. 95.

1935

  • Exposition de L'art français au XVIIIe siècle, Palais de Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, 1935, no. 262.

1936

  • Watteau and His Contemporaries, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1936, no. 27.

1948

  • French Painting of the Eighteenth Century, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1948, no. 45.

1961

  • Masterpieces: A Memorial Exhibition for Adele R. Levy, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1961, no. 20.

1984

  • Watteau 1684-1721, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, West Germany, 1984-1985, no. 35.

2015

  • Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716): Le triomphe de la couleur, Musée national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2015, no. 48b, repro.

Bibliography

1845

  • Hédouin, Paul. "Watteau. Catalogue de son oeuvre." L'Artiste (30 November 1845): 78, no. 17.

1875

  • Goncourt, Edmond de. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'Antoine Watteau. Paris, 1875: 50-51, no. 47.

1889

  • Mantz, Paul. "Watteau II." Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 3, 64 (March 1889): no. 1.

1895

  • Phillips, Claude. Antoine Watteau. London, 1895: 30.

1903

  • Josz, Virgile. Watteau: moeurs du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1903:167-169.

1910

  • Monod, François. "L'exposition nationale des maitres anciens." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3, no. 631 (January 1910): 256, 257.

1912

  • Pilon, Edmond. Watteau et son école. Brussels and Paris, 1912: 118-120.

1921

  • Marcel, Pierre. La peinture française: le XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1921: 23, repro. pl. 55

  • Dacier, Emile and Albert Vuaflart. Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siecle. 4 vols. Paris, 1921-1929: I:262, no. 106; 3:50, no. 106.

1928

  • Dimier, Louis. Les peintres français du XVIIIe siècle. Histoire des vies et catalogue des oeuvres. 2 vols. Paris, 1928-1930: 1(1928):31, no. 26.

1936

  • Blunt, Anthony. "Watteau and His Contemporaries." The Burlington Magazine (November 1936): 230, 231, repro. pl. B.

1938

  • "Notable Works of Art Now on the Market." The Burlington Magazine. 73 (December 1938): advertising supplement, n.p., repro.

1950

  • Adhémar, Hélène and René Huyghe. Watteau, sa vie, son oeuvre. Paris, 1950: 86, 152, 212-213, nos. 97-100.

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: 204, no. 81, repro.

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 217-218, repro. fig. 4.

1957

  • Parker, Karl Theodore, and Jacques Mathey. Antoine Watteau: catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné. Paris, 1957: 2:339, under no. 719.

1959

  • Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 24, color repro.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 348, repro.

  • Mathey, J. Antoine Watteau. Peintures réapparues, inconnues ou négligées par les historiens... Paris, 1959: 46-47, 68, 78, repro. pl. 115.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 26.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings and Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 175, repro. pl. 166.

  • Seilern, Antoine, Graf von. Paintings and Drawings of Continental Schools Other than Flemish and Italian at 56 Princes Gate London SW7. London, 1961: 79.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 316, repro.

1964

  • Levey, Michael. "A Watteau rediscovered: 'Le printems' [sic] for Crozat" The Burlington Magazine 106, no. 731 (February 1964): 54, 55, repro. fig. 3, 57.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 139.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:300, color repro.

  • Chronique des arts Supplement to Gazette des Beaux-arts ser. 6, 68 (October 1966): 23.

1967

  • Brookner, Anita. Watteau. Feltham, 1967: 33-34, repro. pl. 11.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 126, repro.

  • Macchia, Giovanni and E.C. Montagni. L'opera completa di Watteau. Milan 1968: 104, cat. 107.

1973

  • Posner, Donald. Watteau: A Lady at her Toilette. New York, 1973:20-21, 23, 28, 97 n. 14, repro. fig. 4.

  • Scott, Barbara. "Marquis de Marigny: A Dispenser of Royal Patronage." Apollo 97, no. 131 (January 1973): 14, 15, repro pl. 1.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 374, repro.

  • Posner, Donald. "Review of Jean Ferré et. al. Watteau" The Art Bulletin 57 (June 1957): 292-293.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 297-300, Fig. 266, color repro, as Allegory of Summer (Ceres).

1982

  • Rosenberg, Pierre and Ettore Camesasca Tout l'oeuvre peint de Watteau. Paris, 1982:104, no. 107b, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 328, no. 436, color repro.

  • Caylus, comte de. "La vie de Antoine Watteau, peintre de figures et de paysages." [1748]. In Pierre Rosenberg, ed. Vies anciennes de Wattteau. Paris, 1984: 73.

  • Posner, Donald. Antoine Watteau. Ithaca, 1984: 76, 96, repro. pl. 16.

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Watteau. Un artiste au XVIIIe siècle. Paris and London, 1984: 152, 153, repro. fig. 135 and pl. 36.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 435, repro.

1987

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "The Drawings of Antoine Watteau: stylistic development and problems of chronology." 3 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1987:2:255, 257-261; 3:repro. fig. 306.

2000

  • Börsch-Supan, Helmut. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721. Trans. Anthea Bell. Cologne, 2000: 34-35, repro. fig. 28.

2001

  • Hattori, Cordélia. "De Charles de La Fosse à Antoine Watteau." Revue du Louvre 51, no. 2 (2001): 56-65, 58, repro. fig. 2.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 260, no. 210 color repro.

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: 54, fig. 26, 72 (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. 98, 466-471, color repro.

Inscriptions

On reverse of fabric: two round customs stamps in black ink, "Douanes Expositions, Paris." On stretcher: in black ink, "5642"; in black pencil or crayon, "2048"; "Cork"; "---- of France"; "No. 1"; in white chalk, "2048"; paper labels, printed, "James Bourlet and Sons, Ltd., Fine Art Packers, Frame Makers, 17 & 18 Nassau Street, Mortimer Street, W., Phones: MUSEUM 1871 & 7588, B 61271"; oval in black ink, 10065, Watteau"; typed, "WATTEAU"; "Ceres"; "451/624d"; printed and written, "VARNISH, applied on Dec., 1955, a special varnish, readily soluble in petroleum hydrocarbons. It is advisable that treatment of the surface coating be done only with the knowledge of persons familiar with this special material. NGA 1413, K 488, G53, K2048, Watteau. M. Modestini, Curator, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York 19, N.Y."

Wikidata ID

Q20177782

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