A Garden Allegory: The Dew and Zephyr Cultivating Flowers

1683/1732

Benoît Massou

Sculptor, French, 1633 - 1684

Anselme Flamen

Sculptor, French, 1647 - 1717

Nicolas Rebillé

Sculptor, French, active 1732 - 1751

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On View

West Building Main Floor, East Sculpture Hall

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 180.5 x 77.2 x 67.3 cm (71 1/16 x 30 3/8 x 26 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.106

More About this Artwork

Verdant green fields roll in undulating waves back alongside a road in this horizontal landscape painting. The fields take up the left and center of the composition and are painted with thick, curling strokes of emerald, pea, and celery green, and corn yellow to suggest grasses and plants. The pale green road runs up along the right edge of the painting, and is layered with strokes and daubs in butter yellow, spring green, and faint blue. The fields and road meet the horizon line about halfway up the canvas, where an aquamarine-blue sky swirling with white and periwinkle-blue clouds fills the top half of the painting.

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Marquis de Marigny, Chateau de la Muette, after 1746 until before 1787. Sir Harold Wernher, London; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25-26 November 1946, 2nd day, no. 388, as Allegory of Spring by J.B. Lemoyne); Leonard Foster.[1] (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold June 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The sale catalogue in the Knoedler British Sales microfiche (copy in NGA curatorial files) is annotated with the buyer's name "Foster." Michèle Beaulieu, "Un Grand Sculpteur Méconnu, Robert Le Lorrain," Jardin des Arts 20 (June 1956): 490, identifies the buyer as Leonard Foster, esq.
[2] The Wildenstein invoice to the Kress Foundation for 16 items, including this sculpture, is dated 23 June 1949 (copy in NGA curatorial files). The sculpture is listed as "La Rosée" by Robert Le Lorrain, and the previous collections listed are "Marquis de Marigny, Chateau de la Muette and Collection Wernher."

Associated Names

Bibliography

1909

  • Furcy-Raynaud, Marc. Inventaires des sculptures. Paris, 1909: 58, 72.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 250, no. 112, repro., as The Dew by Robert Le Lorrain.

1956

  • Beaulieu, Michèle. "Un grand sculpteur méconnu, Robert Le Lorrain." Le Jardin des Arts (June 1956):487, repro, as by Le Lorrain.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 448, repro., as The Dew by Robert Le Lorrain.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 160, as The Dew by Robert Le Lorrain.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 141, repro., as The Dew by Robert Le Lorrain.

1976

  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 100.

1977

  • Souchal, François. French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV. 3 vols. Translated by Elsie and George Hill. Oxford and London, 1977-1987: 1(1977):281, repro.

1978

  • Souchal, François. "Anselme Flamen, natif de Saint-Omer, sculpteur du Roi." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 91 (February 1978): repro. 52.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 147, repro.

1999

  • Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 79 (not in the exhibition).

2023

  • Dickerson, C.D. III and Robert Price. "Restoring Sculpture in Paris After and Before the French Revolution." Daphne Barbour, ed., Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 6 (2023):120-151, repro. iii-iv (detail), 124, 137.

Wikidata ID

Q63809313

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