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拍品專文
This impressive drawing, known as L’hommage à Glück, was intended by Fragonard as a tribute to his contemporary, the famous composer Christoph Willibald Glück (1714-1787), but also as a celebration of artistic inspiration more broadly. The composition is vigorously sketched in black chalk and fluid and rich strokes of brown wash.
An artist, crowned with laurel wreath, is seated at his desk holding a pencil; on a large sheet of paper in front of him, he has written the dedication ‘et mon Coeur/ et mes/ oeuvres/ Fragonard’ (my heart and my works, Fragonard) that appears to be addressed to Glück and to the two poets of antiquity, Homer and Virgil, all three portrayed in sculpted busts on a podium erected in front of the artist’s desk. In the room, on the ground, are a lyre, a palette, a portfolio of drawings and some sheets of paper, symbolizing the different forms of art.
The German-born Glück was one of the 18th Century leading opera composers. He worked at the Hapsburg court in Vienna, as well as in London, Dresden and Paris. Glück arrived in Paris in 1773 and worked between there and Vienna for nearly a decade during which time he created Orpheus, Iphigenia and Aulis and what is considered his finest work, Iphigénie en Tauride (1779). During this period Glück also wrote the score for Armide (1777), a 17th Century opera with a libretto by Phillipe Quinault (1635-1688) that was based on Torquato Tasso's 16th Century epic poem, La Gerusalemme liberata. In Paris Glück was supported by Queen Marie Antoniette and came to enjoy immense success. Many artists portrayed him in painting and sculpture. His admirers wanted to honor Glück with a marble bust to be commissioned to Jean-Antoine Houdon and to be placed in the grand foyer of the Opera. For this reason, in July 1776, a subscription was launched to raise money to pay for the work. It appears that Fragonard himself was among the subscribers (Stein, op. cit., p. 230).
This drawing is one of several of Fragonard’s compositions celebrating artistic inspiration. Marianne Roland Michel in an article of 1961 cited several other examples executed in a similar format and technique, among these The inspiration of the poet (whereabouts unknown; see Ananoff, op. cit., 1961-1970, I, no. 454, ill.) and Ariosto inspired by Love and Folly (inv. D2862, Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie; see P. Rosenberg, Les Fragonard de Besançon, exhib. cat., Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, 2006, no. 93, ill.).
Most likely the present drawing can be identified with a sheet included in the posthumous sale of the notable collector Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul held in Paris in 1781. The inaccurate identification of the poets in the sale catalogue - Un superbe Dessin lavé au bistre sur papier blanc. Il représente la Peinture dédiant ses crayons a Homere, Virgile & Mécène. Allégorie ingénieuse présentée sous la figure d’un Peintre dessinant sur une table antique devant les bustes de ces grands Hommes (A superb wash drawing on white paper. It represents Painting dedicating its pencils to Homer, Virgil & Maecenas. An ingenious allegory personified by the figure of a Painter drawing on an antique table in front of the busts of these great men) - seems to prove that the inscriptions under the busts with the names of the sitters were added later, perhaps by Fragonard himself. The date of the sale provides a possible important terminus ante-quem for the drawing.
An artist, crowned with laurel wreath, is seated at his desk holding a pencil; on a large sheet of paper in front of him, he has written the dedication ‘et mon Coeur/ et mes/ oeuvres/ Fragonard’ (my heart and my works, Fragonard) that appears to be addressed to Glück and to the two poets of antiquity, Homer and Virgil, all three portrayed in sculpted busts on a podium erected in front of the artist’s desk. In the room, on the ground, are a lyre, a palette, a portfolio of drawings and some sheets of paper, symbolizing the different forms of art.
The German-born Glück was one of the 18th Century leading opera composers. He worked at the Hapsburg court in Vienna, as well as in London, Dresden and Paris. Glück arrived in Paris in 1773 and worked between there and Vienna for nearly a decade during which time he created Orpheus, Iphigenia and Aulis and what is considered his finest work, Iphigénie en Tauride (1779). During this period Glück also wrote the score for Armide (1777), a 17th Century opera with a libretto by Phillipe Quinault (1635-1688) that was based on Torquato Tasso's 16th Century epic poem, La Gerusalemme liberata. In Paris Glück was supported by Queen Marie Antoniette and came to enjoy immense success. Many artists portrayed him in painting and sculpture. His admirers wanted to honor Glück with a marble bust to be commissioned to Jean-Antoine Houdon and to be placed in the grand foyer of the Opera. For this reason, in July 1776, a subscription was launched to raise money to pay for the work. It appears that Fragonard himself was among the subscribers (Stein, op. cit., p. 230).
This drawing is one of several of Fragonard’s compositions celebrating artistic inspiration. Marianne Roland Michel in an article of 1961 cited several other examples executed in a similar format and technique, among these The inspiration of the poet (whereabouts unknown; see Ananoff, op. cit., 1961-1970, I, no. 454, ill.) and Ariosto inspired by Love and Folly (inv. D2862, Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie; see P. Rosenberg, Les Fragonard de Besançon, exhib. cat., Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, 2006, no. 93, ill.).
Most likely the present drawing can be identified with a sheet included in the posthumous sale of the notable collector Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul held in Paris in 1781. The inaccurate identification of the poets in the sale catalogue - Un superbe Dessin lavé au bistre sur papier blanc. Il représente la Peinture dédiant ses crayons a Homere, Virgile & Mécène. Allégorie ingénieuse présentée sous la figure d’un Peintre dessinant sur une table antique devant les bustes de ces grands Hommes (A superb wash drawing on white paper. It represents Painting dedicating its pencils to Homer, Virgil & Maecenas. An ingenious allegory personified by the figure of a Painter drawing on an antique table in front of the busts of these great men) - seems to prove that the inscriptions under the busts with the names of the sitters were added later, perhaps by Fragonard himself. The date of the sale provides a possible important terminus ante-quem for the drawing.