Jean-Baptiste Oudry Paris 1686 - 1755 Beauvais

Sold by the artist around 1751 to M. de Montenault, Paris, publisher of the folio edition;
J.-J. de Bure, Paris, 1828, his sale, Paris, 1-8 December 1853, lot 344 (1,800FF);
Count Adolphe-Narcisse Thibaudeau, Paris;
(probably given by him to the celebrated actress, Mme Doche, and then sold by her to the bookseller Fontaine for 2,500FF, then bought from him by Félix Solar for 5,000FF);
Félix Solar, his sale, Paris, 19 November-8 December 1860, lot 627 (sold to M. Cleder acting for Baron Taylor, 6,100FF);
acquired (from Taylor?) by the booksellers Morgand et Fatout, Paris, circa 1876;
sold by them to Emile Péreire, Paris;
sold by him to Louis Roederer, Reims;
acquired from his estate by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, 1923;
Raphael Esmerian, New York, circa 1946, his sale, Paris, Palais Galliera, 6 June 1973, lot 46 (20,000FF), after which the first volume was sold to the British Rail Pension Fund and the second was dismembered and the pages sold separately.
 

For the very extensive literature on the whole group of drawings, see Opperman, op. cit., below, and also sale catalogue, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1996, under lot 96.
Jean Locquin, 'Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre de Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755)', in Archives de l'art français, Paris, n.s., vol. VI, 1912, cat. no. 1171;
Hal N. Opperman, Jean Baptiste Oudry, 1977, vol. II, p. 700, cat. no. D473

Between 1729 and 1734, while Oudry was employed at the Beauvais factory preparing designs for a series of tapestries, he also found time to produce no fewer than 275 drawings illustrating the Fables of La Fontaine.  Gougenot gives a romantic account of the artist working on the drawings late at night after his days at Beauvais.  In 1751 Oudry sold the complete set of drawings to Montenault (see provenance), who announced their forthcoming publication.  Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger was in charge of the illustrations and made copies of Oudry's freely drawn originals for the engravers.  Oudry provided the drawing for the frontispiece in 1752, the first two volumes appeared in 1755, the third in 1756 and the fourth finally in 1759, thanks to a generous donation from the King himself.  Around 1755-60, the original Oudry drawings were bound into two albums, the second of which was broken up and dispersed after the Esmerian sale in 1973.  This drawing comes from that album.  The other album, in its original dark blue calf binding labelled on the spine: DESSINS DES/FABLES DE LA/FONTAINE PAR/I.B.OUDRY/PREMIERE PARTIE, has remained intact and was sold, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1996, lot 96.