Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris)

Putti forging and sharpening arrowheads on a millstone, after Francesco Albani

Details

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris)
Putti forging and sharpening arrowheads on a millstone, after Francesco Albani
inscribed by the Abbé de Saint-Non 'de l'albani/ Palais Santa Croce'
black chalk
10 3/8 x 7 ½ in. (26.2 x 19.2 cm.)

Provenance

Dr. J. Hasson; Christie's, London, 24 March 1961, lot 13 (380 gns. to Agnew).

Literature

P. Rosenberg and B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Panopticon Italiano: Un diario di viaggio ritrovato: 1759-1761, Rome, 2000, p. 355, no. 83, ill.

Engraved

by the Abbé de Saint-Non, Fragments, 22, and Griffonis, 128.

Brought to you by

Harriet West

hwest@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2541

Lot Essay

Albani's painting was in the Palazzo Santacroce (now Pasolini) when Fragonard and Saint-Non were in Rome at various times between 1759 and 1761. The painting was one of four oval canvases representing the four seasons that Albani executed around 1640. Fragonard's drawing shows a detail of two putti turning a millstone to sharpen a bow in the composition of Winter which included references to fire, with Venus, Cupid and Vulcan at a forge (for the paintings see C.R. Puglisi, A study of the Bolognese-Roman painter Francesco Albani, PhD. diss., New York University, 1983, pp. 313-15).
There is a counterproof of this drawing in the Biblioteca Universitaria, Warsaw.

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