Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Probably Prince Paul Demidoff, Palazzo di San Donato, near Florence,
probably his sale, Paris, 27-28 April 1874, lot 80 ('Première pensée du tableau gravé par Mathieu');
Camille Groult (1837-1908), Paris, 1889,
by descent to his son Jean Groult (1868-1951),
and to his grandson, Pierre Bordeaux-Groult (1916-2007),
from whom acquired by the present owner in 1984

Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Fragonard, 1980, no. 158, also cited under no. 157, reproduced;
New York, Wildenstein, The Arts of France from François I^er to Napoléon I^er, 2005-06, no. 120, reproduced;
Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, and Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Consuming Passion: Fragonard's Allegories of Love, 2007-08, no number

R. Portalis, Honoré Fragonard: sa vie et son époque, Paris 1889, p. 313;
B. Lossky, Tours, Musée des Beaux-Arts:  Peintures de XVIII siècle, Paris, 1962, n.np., cited under no. 40;
A. Ananoff, L'Oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, vol. IV, Paris 1970, p. 156, no. 2428, reproduced fig. 615;
J.P. Cuzin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard:  Vie et oeuvre, catalogue complet des peintures, Fribourg/Paris 1987, pp. 209, 255, note 3;
A. Molotiu, Fragonard's Allegories of Love, Los Angeles 2007 (published in connection with the exhibition), pp. 22-29 passim; 93, 114, note 52, reproduced, p. 26, fig. 15

Laid down. Overall in very good condition. Medium remains strong and fresh and black chalk under drawing strong and vibrant. Sold in a carved and gilded frame.
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.

In this ecstatic and effervescent celebration of Love, two young lovers are shown in a shadowy garden grove, swearing their eternal devotion to each other by placing their hands on a marble plaque held by two putti, while at the same time embracing passionately.  Although no text is here visible on the plaque, in the painted and engraved versions of the composition, we can read that the couple are swearing on the inscription: ‘SERMENT D’AIME[R] TOUTE SA VIE’ (‘Oath to love for one’s entire life’).  The drawing, a fairly late work dating from circa 1780, is one of Fragonard’s most lyrical and romantic images, and also, in its mastery of narrative, movement and light, shows off to the full his technical brilliance as a draughtsman.

Jean Cuzin (loc cit, p. 209) described the drawing, as “un merveilleux lavis où les formes foisonnantes et discontinues se dissolvent en un bouquet tourbillonnant, folle bataille de touches de lavis et de tracés cursifs, tachisme lumineux, métaphore de l’extase" ("a marvellous wash drawing in which the multitude of discontinuous forms dissolve in a swirling mass, a frenzied battle of touches of wash and cursive lines, luminous ‘tachisme’, a metaphor for ecstasy").

Two painted versions of the composition are known.  One, oval in shape, now in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (fig. 1)¹, was twice engraved in 1786, by Jean Mathieu and by Nicolas de Launay.  The other canvas, rectangular in form, is at present in the Musée Fragonard, Grasse, on deposit from the Louvre.²  For the fullest discussion of Fragonard’s representations of this theme, see Molotiu, loc. cit.  Another drawing of the same subject, formerly in the collections of Amédée-Paul-Emile Gasc and Otto Wertheimer, is in a private collection.³  

¹ The National Trust, inv. 287.1997; G. Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, London 1960, no. 496

²  Cuzin, op. cit., no. 364

³  Ananoff, op. cit., no. 2429