The Goddess Minerva, ca. 1772

  • Jean Honoré Fragonard, French, 1732-1806

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed (oval): 27 5/8 × 21 7/8 inches (70.2 × 55.6 cm)
  • 39 × 29 × 4 inches (99.1 × 73.7 × 10.2 cm)

Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb

53.354

On View

  • European, Level 2, South

Department

European Painting

possibly Duc de Liancourt

(Lucien Guiraud, Paris, France)

Wildenstein (Paris, France)

Monsieur Destrem (20 rue Roquepine, Paris, France)

January 5, 1923, acquired by (René Gimpel, Paris, France)

1925, purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1953-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

French Art of the 18th Century. Exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art. Cincinnati and Baltimore, 1924, no. 14 and no. 7. The Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and English Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1926, cat. 50 (ill.). [lent by Edgar B. Whitcomb.] Fourth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: French Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1926, cat. 20. [lent by Mr. & Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb.] Fifth Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1927, p. 41, cat. 76. [lent by Mr. & Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb.] Heil, W. "The Edgar B. Whitcomb Collection in Detroit." Art in America16 (1928): p. 49. Heil, W. "MS catalogue." 1931, p. 43. Richardson, E.P. Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture Given by Edgar B. Whitcomb and Anna Scripps Whitcomb to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1954, p. 79 (ill.) p. 78. Réau, L. Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956, p. 148. Wildenstein, G. The Paintings of Fragonard. London, 1960, p. 287, no. 407 (fig. 167). Wildenstein, D. and G. Mandel. L'opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972, no. 432. Cuzin, J.-P. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Life and Work. New York, 1988, p. 304, no. 230. Rosenberg, P. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Paris, 1989, no. 245. [as Allégorie de la Force.] Three Masters of French Rococo: Boucher, Fragonard, Lancret. Exh. cat., Odakyu Grand Gallery, Daimaru Museum, Hakodate Museum of Art, Sogo Museum of Art. Tokyo, Umeda-Osaka, Hokkaido, and Yokohama, 1990, no. 41, p. 172 [English version], p. 150 [Japanese version], color pls. p. 41.

Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Goddess Minerva, ca. 1772, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, 53.354.