JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD
69 Oh! If Only He Were as
Faithful to Me
Black chalk and brush and brown wash; H: 24.8 cm (9^3 /4
in.); W: 38.3 cm (i5z/8 in.)
82.GB.l6 5
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) on mount, in-
scribed IIa\2 in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: ComteJacques deBryas, Paris (sale, Gal-
erie Georges Petit, Paris, April 4-6, 1898, lot 58); Pierre
Decourcelle, Paris (sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,
May 29-30, 1911, lot 87); Baron Edmond James de
Rothschild, Paris; Mme Goldschmidt de Rothschild,
Paris; sale, Kunsthalle Basel, January 24, 1970, lot 28;
private collection, France; art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Exposition Chardin et Fragonard, Galerie
Georges Petit, Paris, June-July 1907, no. 169. Drawings
by Fragonard in North American Collections, National Gal-
lery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, no. 27 (catalogue
by E. Williams). Fmgonard, National Museum of West-
ern Art, Tokyo, and Kyoto Municipal Museum, March-
May and May-June 1980, no. 122 (catalogue by D.
Sutton).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Dayot, "Fragonard," L'art et les ar-
tistes 5 (April-September 1907), p. 154; idem and
L. Vaillat, L'oeuvre deJ.-B.-S. Chardin et deJ.-H. Frago-
nard (Paris, 1907), p. 19, no. 158;J. L. Vaudoyer, "La col-
lection de M. Pierre Decourcelle," Les arts 10, no. in
(March 1911), p. 14; L. Guimbaud, St. Non et Fmgonard
d'apres des documents inedits (Paris, 1928), p. 201, no. 72;
J. Cailleux, "A Note on the Pedigree of Some Paintings
and Drawings," Burlington Magazine, suppl., 104 , no. 12
(September 1962), p. iii; A. Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessine de
Jean-Honore Fmgonard (Paris, 1963), vols. 2, pp. 41-42,
no. 636; 3, no. 636.
THE SUBJECT OF THIS SCENE SITS SADLY ON HER BED,
bemoaning the unfaithfulness of her lover, while her dog
resolutely offers the loyalty the latter evidently lacks. The
composition is close in spirit to boudoir representations
by Fragonard (Williams 1978, no. 28), but contains the
added element of what is perhaps a degree of mock mor-
alization. The media and technique of the drawing are
fully in accord with its imagery. Richly underdrawn with
rapid black chalk strokes, it is exemplary of Fragonard's
command of varied tones of wash and his ability to sug-
gest texture.
The drawing was published as a print by the Abbe
de Saint-Non in 1776, which provides a terminus ante
quern for it. A copy of the drawing is in the Fondation
Ephrussi de Rothschild, Musee He de France, Saint-Jean-
Cap-Ferrat (Williams 1978, fig. 3). The complex prov-
enances of the two versions have been fully untangled
and their respective positions clarified by Williams (1978,
no. 27).158 FRENCH SCHOOL • FRAGONARD