Gallery Label In the year before his death, at the Paris Salon of 1738, Trémolières exhibited a pair of large paintings representing Comedy and Tragedy, the latter dated 1736. Both belong now to the Musée Municipal, Cholet. A drawing for the head of Comedy, is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. The present small sketch, which differs in various details, is preliminary to the Salon picture. The allegorical subjects were something of a novelty at the time.
Notes At the Paris Salon of 1738, Trémolières exhibited a pair of large paintings representing Comedy and Tragedy, the latter dated 1736. Both belong now to the Musée Municipal, Cholet. A drawing for the head of Comedy, is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. The present small sketch, which differs in various details, is preliminary to the Salon picture.
Provenance Louis François I, prince de Conti (d. 1776; his estate sale, Muzier père and Pierre Rémy, Paris, April 8–June 6, 1777, no. 706, h. 17 pouces, w. 20 pouces 6 lignes [18 1/2 x 21 7/8 in.], for Fr 180 to Rémy, ?bought in); [Fischer-Böhler, Munich, by 1954–at least 1955, as by François Boucher]; Emma A. Sheafer, New York (by 1970–d. 1973)
Exhibition History New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lesley and Emma Sheafer Collection: A Selective Presentation," July 16, 1975–?, no. 30.
References Jean-François Méjanès et al. Pierre-Charles Trémoliéres (Cholet, 1703–Paris, 1739) . Exh. cat., Musée Municipal de Cholet. Paris, 1973, pp. 67–68, 86, remarks that allegorical images of Tragedy and Comedy were relatively new in Trémolière's time—not having been introduced in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologie," published in France in 1644, 1677, 1681, and 1693—and believes his paintings of these subjects are innovative; illustrates his larger painting of Comedy (signed but undated) and of "La Tragédie" (dated 1736), both in the Musée Municipal de Cholet, and also reproduces a drawing for the head of Comedy (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm); mentions a smaller version of Comedy [our picture], "apparently a sketch" for the picture in Cholet, that was in the Conti sale in 1777.The Lesley and Emma Sheafer Collection: A Selective Presentation . New York, 1975, no. 30, suggests these might be the first representations in French painting of subjects that would become very popular.
Add to My Met Gallery
Print
List View
Enlarge
Zoom