Love the Sentinel

c. 1773/1776

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Painter, French, 1732 - 1806

Media Options

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On View

NGA, West Building, G-011-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 56.2 x 47.3 cm (22 1/8 x 18 5/8 in.)
    framed: 77.5 x 62.9 x 8.3 cm (30 1/2 x 24 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.112

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries: Love the Sentinel, c. 1773/1776

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

Possibly (Dennoor sale, Le Brun, Paris, 5-7 April 1797, no. 73). Rothschild collections, probably Paris and London. Andrew W. Mellon [1855-1937], Pittsburgh and Washington, by 1934;[1] by inheritance to his daughter, Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] Given the numerous versions of this painting and its pendant, Love as Folly (NGA 1970.17.111), it is difficult to establish their early provenances. Although Georges Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, New York, 1960: 271, listed the other NGA pair (NGA 1947.2.1 and NGA 1947.2.2) as appearing in the Véri sale in 1785, Roger Portalis, Honoré Fragonard: Sa vie et son oeuvre, 2 vols., Paris, 1889: 2:270, associated this painting and its pendant with that sale.
The identity of the Rothschild collection that included the pair is also uncertain. Portalis 1889, 2:270 cites Alphonse de Rothschild (probably Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild, 1827-1905) at the Château de Boulogne-sur-Seine; Pierre de Nolhac, Jean-Honoré Fragonard: 1732-1806, Paris, 1906: 156, cites Alphonse without a location; and Wildenstein 1960, 271, cites Alphonse at the Château de Boulogne and Arthur de Rothschild in London. The Rothschild Archive in London kindly searched Alphonse's records for the paintings without success and also noted that the Château de Boulogne was the residence not of Alphonse, but of his brother, Edmond James de Rothschild (1845-1934) (Melanie Aspey, e-mail message, 3 March 2006, and Barbra Ruperto, e-mail message, 21 August 2007, both to Anne Halpern, NGA curatorial files). Pauline Marcilhacy, whose expertise is the Rothschild collections in France, kindly checked the available records for the Château de Boulogne but did not find the National Gallery's paintings (e-mail message to Anne Halpern, 5 September 2007, NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1933

  • Three French Reigns (Louis XIV, XV & XVI): Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Royal Northern Hospital, 25 Park Lane, London, 1933, no. 124, repro.

1934

  • Exhibition of French Painting from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Day, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1934, no.29

1935

  • French Painting and Sculpture of the Eighteenth Century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1935-1936, no. 47, repro.

1982

  • Fragonard and His Friends: Changing Ideals in Eighteenth Century Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1982-1983, no. 22.

Bibliography

1960

  • Wildenstein, Georges. The Paintings of Fragonard. New York, 1960: no. 322

1972

  • Mandel, Gabriele. L'Opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972: no. 339, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 134, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 338, no. 454, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 160, repro.

1987

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre." Fribourg, 1987. English edition New York, 1988: 308-309, nos. 256-257, repro.

1989

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989: 102, no. 284-285, repro.

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. 33, 167-172, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower center: frago
On stretcher: small label, "No. 56398 / B picture"; blue-bordered label, "4127." Attached to backing board: label, "S.L. No. 2477.2 / THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM / OF ART / SPECIAL LOAN EXHIBITION / OF / FRENCH / XVIII CENT. PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE/ Title La Folie / Artist Fragonard / Owner Andrew W. Mellon / Address 1787 Mass Ave. / Return Address Washington, D. C."

Wikidata ID

Q20178626

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