Property from the Estate of William J. Levy, Sold to Benefit the Endowed Scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
A view of Naples with Marechiaro, Posillipo, pleasure boats in the foreground
Auction Closed
July 3, 10:51 AM GMT
Estimate
18,000 - 22,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of William J. Levy, Sold to Benefit the Endowed Scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(Grasse 1732 - 1806 Paris)
A view of Naples with Marechiaro, Posillipo, pleasure boats in the foreground
Pen and brown ink and wash over traces of black chalk;
inscribed and dated in brown ink: pausilipe près / Naples 1774
285 by 366 mm
M. Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880), Paris,
his posthumous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 3-5 April 1880, lot 264 (375frs. to Malinet);
sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 2000, lot 63,
where purchased by the late owner
Baron Roger de Portalis, Fragonard, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris 1889, p. 316;
A. Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Paris 1970, vol. IV, p. 117, no. 2266
On 5 October 1773, Fragonard embarked on his second trip to Italy, at the invitation of the fermier-général, Jacques-Onésyme Bergeret de Grancourt, who agreed to carry the costs of the trip if Fragonard would present him in return with the drawings that he produced along the way - mainly of sites of particular interest, genre scenes, portraits and copies after old masters.
The present sheet is inscribed by Fragonard, lower right, in pen and ink, giving the location and the date when the drawing was made. Bergeret and his entourage stayed in Naples and the surrounding area for two months, from 15th April until 12th June 1774. This delightful view of the section of coast known today as Marechiaro is in the area of Posillipo (Pausylipon), where the remains of the Roman villa of Publio Vedio Pollione could, and still can, be seen. Bergeret's diary shows that they visited Posillipo, which separates the bay of Naples from that of Baïa, on Monday 25th April, and again two days later. Very few drawings survive from these visits.
We are most grateful to Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey, who, having studied the drawing in the original, has confirmed the attribution to Fragonard. Furthermore, she believes that the inscription is in Fragonard's hand, and has pointed out that it was in fact Eunice Williams who first recognised that the inscriptions on the artist's drawings from 1774 were Fragonard's own, rather than added by Bergeret, who did at times inscribe the drawings that Fragonard gave him.1 Colin Bailey, writing in 2017, has also supported this view.2
- Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections , exhib. cat., Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, 1978-79, p. 94
- C.B. Bailey, 'Fragonard: The Heights of Drawing,' The New York Review of Books, 9 February 2017