The Avenue of Cypresses at Villa d'Este

1760 and c. 1765

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Artist, French, 1732 - 1806

Cypress trees tower over either side of a walkway to nearly fill this vertical drawing created entirely in tones of sepia and faint brown. The walkway extends away from us and is lined to our left with a high wall and bushes or trees to the right. Several people sit or stand at the end of the path by the trunks and in the deep shade of the cypresses. Silhouettes there may also be statues. Beyond this group, a grand staircase leads to the entrance of a monumental, perhaps five-story building.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown and gray ink with brown and gray wash red chalk counterproof on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 45.6 × 34.2 cm (17 15/16 × 13 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2013.130.3

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Cuzin 1987, no. 60

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 29 November 1985, lot 61); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1956

  • Exposition J-H Fragonard: Peintures & Dessins en commemoration du cent-cinquante de sa mort 1806-1956, Musée des Beaux Arts de Besancon, Paris, 1956, no. 1.

1985

  • Dessins Anciens des Ecoles Flamande, Francaise, Hollandaise, et Italienna du XVIe au XIXe Siecle, Vente Nouveau Drouot, Paris, 1985, no. 61.

1986

  • Dibujos de los siglos XIV al XX: Colección Woodner, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1986-87, no. 100.

  • Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten: Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, Haus der Kunst, Munich only, 1986, no. XIII.

1987

  • Master Drawings: The Woodner Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1987, no. 83.

1989

  • Exploring Rome: Piranesi and His Contemporaries, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1989, (not in catalogue).

1990

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 104.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 88 (entry by Margaret Morgan Grasselli).

2000

  • Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2000, no. 348, repro.

2006

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007 (no cat.).

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 196-197, 287, no. 87 (color).

2017

  • The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

Bibliography

1950

  • Biblioteque Nationale Cent Cinquante Chefs-d’oeuvre de L’Albertina de Vienne. Paris: Presses Artistiques, 1950?: 34-36.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. Old Master Drawings from the Libertina. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1985: 252-253.

1987

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Fragonard. Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988. Paris, 1987: under no. 30, fig. 2.

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Le Dessin français au XVIIIe siècle. Fribourg, 1987: 32, fig. 23.

  • Cuzin, Jean-pierre. Jean-Honore Fragonard: vie et oeuvre. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1987: 60.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996: no. 88.

2006

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, with Claudine Lebrun Jouve. Les Frragonard de Besançon. Exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, 2006: 65, fig. 19b.

2007

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan, Andrew Robison, et al. Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings. Exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2007: 152 note 4.

Inscriptions

by later hand, on mount, lower right verso in pen and brown ink: Près Tivoli, vue du Palais et jardin de la / villa d'Este prise du côté / de l'entrée dans la parterre / Bâtie vers l'an 1540. / Fragonard no 199

Wikidata ID

Q64581234

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