Jean-Honoré Fragonard

George and Florence Blumenthal, New York and Paris,
Baroness von Wrangell (Florence Blumenthal),
her sale, London, Sotheby's, 26 November 1970, lot 74, reproduced;
H.P. Blunden;
with Thomas Le Claire Kunsthandel, Hamburg, Master Drawings, 1500-1900, 1998, no. 23 (entry written by Eunice Williams)

Stella Rubinstein-Bloch, Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris 1926-30, vol. 5, pl. XXXIV

Partially laid down to the mount at the top corners. Overall in excellent condition. The medium remains fresh and the paper clean. Sold in a small gilded frame with a decorative bow at the top.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Eunice Williams, in her most elegant and helpful entry on this drawing in Thomas Le Claire's catalogue, dated it to the decade after Fragonard's second trip to Italy in 1773-74 with Bergeret de Grandcourt when he developed a new and highly personal use of wash.  She writes: 'Our landscape has the formal power and attention to detail expected in a sheet twice its size.'  She compares it with two other examples, one in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the other in the Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, both also showing Italian gardens filled with sunlight and animated figures.¹

The unusual inclusion of Egyptian antiquities instead of the more familiar Greek or Roman ones seems to have had a direct connection to Fragonard's trip with Bergeret.  The statue of Ptolomy II had been discovered in Rome in 1710 and given by Pope Clement XI Albani to the Capitoline Museum where Bergeret saw it, and commented on it in his journal in December 1773.  He also saw, and mentioned, other Egyptian works in various Roman collections.²  Here Fragonard uses his imagination to place these exotic antiquities outside in a park, where they are being admired and studied by visitors, and even by an artist.

1.  Eunice Williams, Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art, et al., 1978-9, p. 98, no. 35 and p. 132, no. 52
2.  Thomas Le Claire exhib. cat., loc. cit. in Provenance