Marguerite Gérard (avec la participation de J. H. Fragonard ?)
(Grasse 1761-1837 Paris)

Before the Masquerade Ball

Oil on canvas,
29.5 x 23.7 cm.

Old inscription (on the stretcher bar, verso): "Mlle Gérard - 1761-1837."

Provenance:
(Possibly) Anonymous sale, London, June 25, 1850, no. 70 (as "A lady dressing for a masquerade").
François-Hippolyte Walferdin (1795-1880), Paris.
Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 12-16, 1880, lot 119, acquired by Mr. May.
Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Catalogue de tableaux anciens, November 15, 1882, no. 23.
Moreau-Chaslon collection.
Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 8, 1886, no. 51 (as "La Loge de l’actrice").
M. Demonts collection.
Sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Catalogue des objets d’art et d’ameublement principalement du dix-huitième siècle composant la collection de Monsieur Demonts, May 23-25, 1921, no. 54 (repr.), acquired by Mr. Guiraud.
Private collection, until 1973.
New York, Wildenstein & Co.
Geneva, private collection.

Literature:
Sally Wells-Robertson, Marguerite Gérard, 1761-1837, Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1978, p. 760, no. 20a.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). Orígenes e influencias. De Rembrandt al siglo XXI, ed. Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Katharina Schmidt and Sophie Raux (exh. cat., Barcelona, CaixaForum, November 10, 2006–February 11, 2007), Barcelona, Fondation la Caixa, 2006, mentioned in appendices of Jean-Pierre Cuzin’s essay, "Fragonard en el año 2006," pp. 33, 201 (as Marguerite Gérard, dated circa 1790).
Le Cardinal Fesch et l’art de son temps: Fragonard, Marguerite Gérard, Jacques Sablet, Louis-Léopold Boilly, ed. Philippe Costamagna and Carole Blumenfeld (exh. cat., Ajaccio, Musée Fesch, June 15–September 30, 2007), Paris, Gallimard; Ajaccio, Musée Fesch, 2007, no. 41 (as Marguerite Gérard and Jean-Honoré Fragonard), illustrated in color p. 121, fig. 41.
La Collection La Caze: chefs-d’œuvre des peintures des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, ed. Guillaume Faroult (exh. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, April 26–July 9, 2007; Pau, Musée des Beaux-Arts, September 20–December 10, 2007; London, Wallace Collection, February 14–May 18, 2008), Paris, Hazan, 2007, mentioned in the essay by Carole Blumenfeld, "Les pionniers de la redécouverte du XVIIIe siècle," p. 91, illustrated in color, p. 90, fig. 61 ("Le Départ pour le bal de l’Opéra").
Carole Blumenfeld, Marguerite Gérard: 1761-1837, Montreuil, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2019, p. 213, no. 32 P; mentioned in the essay "Fragonard’s Interesting Student," p. 44, illustrated in color p. 50.

Exhibitions:
Intimate Encounters. Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, ed. Richard Rand (exh. cat., Hanover, New Hampshire, Hood Museum of Art, October 4, 1997–January 4, 1998; Toledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, February 15–May 10, 1998; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, May 31–August 23, 1998), Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997, no. 42, illustrated in color p. 185.
Parfums d’interdit: l’audace sous le pinceau de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Marguerite Gérard et leurs pairs, ed. Carole Blumenfeld (exh. cat., Grasse, Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Collection Hélène et Jean-François Costa, May 26–September 23, 2018), Grasse, Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 2018, no. 14, illustrated in color p. 86.

 

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