Attributed to Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD (1732-1806) The... Lot 157

Attributed to Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD (1732-1806) The Toilet of Venus Oil on canvas, lined 60 x 40 cm Provenance : Former Léon Michel-Lévy collection His sale Paris June 17-18, 1925, no. 140, repr. (as Fragonard) "Etude pour un tableau de plus grandes dimensions ayant fait partie de la collection Barroilhet, sale in Paris March 15-16, 1872, catalog no. 9 (72 x 49 cm). This study seems to us to have been taken up again later by another hand". Exhibition: 1907, Paris, Chardin - Fragonard. n° 105, Catalogue illustré de MM. A.Dayot et L.Vaillat, 1907, p. 105 (as Fragonard) Bibliography : Louis Réau, Fragonard, 1958, p. 147, quoted as "Etude pour le tableau de la vente Barroilhel" (Study for the painting in the Barroilhel sale). Georges Wildenstein, Les peintures de J.H. Fragonard, London, 1960, p. 270, no. 314, "...une étude(?) de ce tableau (le n° 314) est passé à la vente L. Michel-Levy 17-18 juin 1925, n° 140, acheté par la comtesse de Gontaut-Biron". Jacques Wilhelm, 1960, p. 93 G.Mandel, Fragonard, L'opera completa, 1972, n° 335A (as Fragonard) "Un dipinto di tema analogo (au 335) forse anche bozzetto preparatorio". Jean Pierre Cuzin, J.H. Fragonard. Vie et œuvres, complete catalog of paintings. Paris, 1987. N° 161, repr. (as Fragonard) Pierre Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Paris, 1989, no. 258, repr. (as Fragonard)