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Invocation to Love
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Invocation to Love

Brush and brown wash with graphite squaring lines and underdrawing on cream laid paperJean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)/c. 1781

Description

Fragonard used gardens as the setting for love and courtship in some of his most important works. One such scene, this drawing depicts a woman pleading for help from a statue of Eros, the god of love. He wears a blindfold, suggesting an uncertain outcome for the woman, as does a Cupid who indifferently leans on an orb nearby. Like other artists in 18th-century France, Fragonard was deeply influenced by historic imagery of the Garden of Love—a pastoral and idyllic contained landscape. He revisited the specific image seen here multiple times, in two oil paintings (Musée du Louvre and private collection, New York) and another drawing (Princeton University Art Museum).

Provenance

François Renaud [active late 18th-early 19th century; Lugt 1042], Paris; Possibly M. Sireul; (Chez M. Boileau, Paris, Tableaux et dessins précieux qui composent le cabinet de M. de Sireul, December 3, 1781, no. 241, possibly sold to François-Martial Marcille); Possibly François-Martial Marcille [1790-1856], Paris; (Paris, M. Marcille sale, March 4-7, 1857, under no. 416, sold to Pierre Désiré Eugène Franc Lamy); Pierre Désiré Eugène Franc Lamy [1855-1919; Lugt 949b], Paris; (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, sold to Grace Rainey Rogers); Grace Rainey Rogers [1867-1943], New York, NY; (Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Notable...Paintings and Drawings...Property of the Estate of the Late Grace Rainey Rogers, November 18-20, 1943, no. 46, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Dimensions

33.5 × 41.6 cm

Movement / Period

Drawings

Accession No

1943.657

Official Citations

[The Cleveland Museum of Art Official Record][Full Resolution Image]
Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)

Drawings • France, 18th century • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries