This painting and its pair, or pendant, nearby are among Fragonard’s most carefully finished and are executed on wood, which allows for their tremendous precision and intensity of color. They elaborate Antoine Watteau’s interest in romantic gardens, as well as gardens in Italy, a newly popular destination for artists. In 1756, having won a scholarship to study in Rome, Fragonard spent four years at the French academy in that city, a traditional artistic rite of passage. He visited the principal cities of Italy again in 1774, as well as Vienna and Frankfurt. This painting is most likely an imagined conglomeration of the kinds of gardens, architecture, and sculpture he encountered.
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This small panel and A Shaded Avenue (49.7.51) probably always formed a pair and have certainly been together since 1800, when they are recorded in the possession of Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov in St. Petersburg. Apparently they remained with his descendants in Rome until shortly before 1926, when they were bought by New York investment banker Jules Bache. From 1771 until 1778 Alexander Stroganov lived in Paris and while there made the acquaintance of many writers and artists, including Hubert Robert (1733–1808), through whom he may have met Fragonard. It is reasonable to imagine that Stroganoff, a major collector, either commissioned the landscapes or bought them from the artist shortly after they were painted, perhaps about 1775, and then took them back with him to Russia.
Fragonard was in Italy from 1756 until 1761 and from October 1773 to September 1774. En route and while there, he made copies of works of art and studies of ancient and modern architecture and landscape. An ink and wash drawing related to this painting and dated by consensus to about 1773–74 is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (two others, horizontal variants, are in private collections). The Stockholm sheet shows an arch with four columns supporting a walkway and a balustrade decorated with statues, foliage at the left, several large trees to the right, and, on sloping ground, a sculpture on a pedestal and two couples of figures. The combination of the arch and columns in an apparently remote setting supports the presumption that the view is imaginary. The disposition of masses in the painting is quite similar, but it shows a carefully maintained park: a cascade, a fountain, and a pool are surrounded by a wrought iron fence and flanked by pairs of sculptures. The plumed hat worn by the man and the high white collar of one of the women in the foreground indicate fancy dress costumes, which further inclines one to regard the view as imaginary. As far as is presently known, there are no variants.
Katharine Baetjer 2011
Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov, St. Petersburg and Maryno (by 1800–d. 1811; cat., 1800, nos. 115–16); his cousin, Count Grigory Alexandrovich Stroganov, St. Petersburg (1811–d. 1857); his grandson, Count Grigory Sergeyevich Stroganov, Palazzo Stroganov, Rome (1857–d. 1910; cat., 1912, vol. II, p. 98, pl. 77); his daughter, Princess Maria Grigorievna Scherbatova, and her children, Prince Vladimir Alexeyevich and Princess Alexandra Alexeyevna, Palazzo Stroganov (1910–d. 1920); Prince Vladimir's widow, Princess Elena Petrovna Scherbatova, later Wolkonsky, and her children, Princess Olga Vladimirovna and Princess Maria Vladimirovna, Palazzo Stroganov (1920–23; sold through Prince Alexandre Wolkonsky, Paris, to Wildenstein and Duveen); [Wildenstein and Duveen, Paris and New York, 1923–26; sold by Wildenstein for $12,500 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1926–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 51; 1943, no. 50)
New York. Wildenstein. "Paintings and Drawings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)," 1926, no. 5 (as "Vue d'une Villa Italienne").
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum and Morgan Memorial. "Retrospective Exhibition of Landscape Painting," January 20–February 9, 1931, no. 57 (lent by Jules Bache, New York).
London. 25 Park Lane. "Three French Reigns," February 21–April 5, 1933, no. 118 (as "The Cascade," lent by Jules S. Bache).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 50.
Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "XVIII Century Paintings," December 12, 1952–January 9, 1953, no catalogue?
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 307.
New York. Colnaghi. "Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France," November 1–December 15, 1990, no. 38B (as "View of an Italian Villa").
comte A. de Stroganoff. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux qui composent la collection du Comte A. de Stroganoff. St. Petersburg, 1800, pp. 79–80, nos. 115–16 (this picture and 49.7.51), as "Vues de jardins d'Italie" by Fragonard.
N. Wrangel and A. Troubnikov. "Les tableaux de la collection du comte G. Stroganoff à Rome." Starye Gody (March 1909), pp. 135–36, ill., as "La Villa Aldobrandini"; date the picture and its pendant during Fragonard's stay in Rome in 1759–60.
Antonio Muñoz. Pièces de choix de la collection du comte Grégoire Stroganoff. Vol. 2, Moyen-Âge—Renaissance—Époque Moderne. Rome, 1911, p. 98, pl. 77, as "Vue d'une villa italienne".
Edouard Brandus. "La collection des tableaux anciens de M. Jules S. Bache, à New-York." La Renaissance 11 (May 1928), p. 188.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill., as "The Cascade," painted near Rome in the 1760s, probably the park surrounding the villa of Prince Mattei, near Tivoli; names Prince Galitzine as the first owner.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 51, ill.
Harry B. Wehle. "The Bache Collection on Loan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (June 1943), p. 286.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 50, ill.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 37.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), ill. p. 38.
Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 155–57, ill., observes that the park may be in France, as its pendant appears to be a vista of the gardens at Bergeret's château at Nègrepelisse near Montauban, where Fragonard was a guest in 1773.
Louis Réau. Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956, p. 184.
Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of Fragonard, Complete Edition. London, 1960, p. 276, no. 349, pl. 68, as "View of an Italian Villa," or "The Cascade," painted between 1773 and 1776.
Gabriele Mandel inL'opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972, p. 102, no. 370, ill., dates it 1773 or shortly thereafter.
Per Bjurström. French Drawings: Eighteenth Century. Stockholm, 1982, unpaginated, under no. 954, ill., discusses this picture and its pendant in relation to Fragonard's drawing, "Italian Landscape" of 1773–74; notes that the colonnade appears in "The Cascade"; the relative freedom with which the artist rearranges the various elements suggests the paintings were compiled from his repertoire of Italian motifs.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre, catalogue complet des peintures. Fribourg, Switzerland, 1987, p. 316, no. 296, ill., dates them about 1775–76.
Philippe Sollers. Les surprises de Fragonard. Paris, 1987, ill. p. 11 (color).
Pierre Rosenberg. Fragonard. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 390, 393, fig. 3, under no. 188 [French ed., 1987, as "Vue d'une villa italienne avec cascade"], as "View of an Italian Villa, with a Cascade"; compares the foliage in both paintings with that in a previously unpublished drawing (cat. no. 188), "View of an Italian Park," in a private collection, Paris; illustrates a similar drawing in a New York collection and another in Stockholm.
Pierre Rosenberg. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989, p. 110, no. 343, ill., as painted after Fragonard's second trip to Italy, about 1780.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Pierre Rosenberg inJ. H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma. Exh. cat., Villa Medici. Rome, 1990, p. 228.
Alan Wintermute inClaude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France. Ed. Alan Wintermute. Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1990, pp. 86, 91, 116, 136, 195, 197–200, no. 38B, ill. (color), as "View of an Italian Villa"; compares it with the wash drawing in Stockholm, which he dates 1773–74, and cites the two drawings in private collections; finds that the painting probably followed the drawings.
Alexis Gregory. "The French Landscape: Claude to Corot." Journal of Art 3 (December 1990), p. 17.
José-Luis de Los Llanos. Fragonard et le dessin français au XVIIIe siècle dans les collections du Petit Palais. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1992, pp. 81, 83, as painted between 1775 and 1778.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 382, ill.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin. "Fragonard: Quelques nouveautés et quelques questions." Mélanges en hommage à Pierre Rosenberg: Peintures et dessins en France et en Italie, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles. Paris, 2001, p. 173, as "Vue d'une villa italienne"; mentions them in relation to "Vue d'un parc italien" (private collection, London), which may date between 1775 and 1780.
Joseph Baillio et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, [2005], p. 79, date them about 1780.
Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, pp. 270–73, no. 86, ill. (color).
The frame is probably from France and dates to about 1845 (see figs. 1–4 above). This exquisite Louis XV Rococo style frame is a copy of the frame on the pendant painting (49.7.51). The back frame is made of oak and the front carved of limewood and is constructed with mitred corners secured with tapered keys. A small cavetto lies within a volute, husk, and bean carved passage at the sight edge. The hollow with its rocaille carved ornament and floral sprays rises to a swept top edge which wraps acanthus leaves asymmetrically around pierced rocaille at the corners. Small animated rocaille perch on the swept sides at the centers. The outer hollow terminates with a chain of cabochon and rosette at the back edge. The water gilding is on a red bole on a crisply recut gesso layer. The painted slip was added for this painting.
Timothy Newbery with Cynthia Moyer 2017; further information on this frame can be found in the Department of European Paintings files
Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
n.d.
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