Cupid Caresses Before He Wounds (L’Amour caresse avant de blesser)

Cupid Caresses Before He Wounds (L’Amour caresse avant de blesser)

late 18th century
Artist
Pierre Paul Prud'hon, French, 1758-1823
Object
drawing
Medium
Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, stump, on cream wove paper
Accession Number
2019.572
Credit Line
The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
Pierre Paul Prud'hon (French). Cupid Caresses Before He Wounds (L’Amour caresse avant de blesser). late 18th century. Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, stump, on cream wove paper. The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection. 2019.572.
Dimensions
height: 21.5 in, 54.6100 cm; width: 17.5 in, 44.4500 cm; frame height: 26.25 in, 66.6750 cm; frame width: 22 in, 55.8800 cm; frame depth: 2.375 in, 6.0325 cm; sheet height: 17.375 in, 44.1325 cm; sheet width: 14.1875 in, 36.0363 cm; image height: 15.75 in
Department
European and American Art Before 1900
Collection
European Painting and Sculpture before 1900
Known Provenance
Studio of the artist; his estate sale, 34 rue de Rocher, Paris, May 13, 1823, lot 20; George Jacob Johan van Os (1782–1861), Paris and Amsterdam; his sale, Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, January 20–22, 1851, no. 187; from which acquired by François-Martial Marcille; his son Camille Marcille, Paris; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 6–7, 1876, no. 115; from which acquired by Léon Ferté, Paris; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 27, 1949, lot 6; with Wildenstein, New York, 1955; from which acquired by Esmond Bradley Martin [1941–2018], 1965; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2019.
Exhibition History
  • "French and Italian Master Drawings from the Collection of Esmond Bradley Martin, Jr."—Denver Art Museum, exh. cat. by Phyllis Hattis, 1982, pp. 5, 26–27, no. 9, repr. (dates drawing to ca. 1814, or later).
  • "Exposition des oeuvres de Prud’hon au profit de sa fille"—École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, exh. cat. by E. Marcille and C. Marcille, 1874, no. 261
  • "Exposition Pierre-Paul Prud’hon"—Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Petit Palais), Paris, 1922, no. 98
  • Société Archéologique d’Eure-et-Loir, Chartres, Exposition départementale. Catalogue de la partie archéologique et artistique, 1869, no. 39 (no. 53, per J. Guiffrey, 1924)
  • "Exhibition of French Art, 1200–1900"—Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 845 [Commemorative Catalogue, 1933, no. 732]
  • "Timeless Master Drawings"—Wildenstein, New York, 1955, no. 93
  • "French Masters: Rococo to Romanticism"—UCLA Art Galleries, Los Angeles, 1961, no. 64
  • Phoenix Art Museum, special exhibition for opening of the 1965 wing, 1965–66
  • Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1967–69, exhibited on extended loan
  • "Passport to Paris"—Denver Art Museum, 10/27/2013–02/09/2014